We now have an answer

[OakdaleFMR]

At the River Rat tourney several of us were talking about what appearred to be an algea bloom on the Croix. Well the St. Paul Pioneer Press web-site has an article that the St. Croix has been added to the list of polluted waters. Phosphorous seems to be the culprit so no wonder there was a bloom.....Sad to see this happening here.

Back home in Arizona there is an amoeba that is causing fatal brain infection that is being picked up while swimming. A boy just died from it after swimming in Lake Havasu one of the lakes formed on the Colorado River.

[marble-eye]

Went camping north of the high bridge this summer, and noticed the green algae bloom/globs. It appeared that it was coming from the large areas of backwaters around the apple river. With the deluge of rains it has pushed this stuff south. Up beyond the apple river the st croix looked very clean. But with the rains/hard winter this year, hopefully it will clean up.

Another note is that many boats have onboard toilets and by law they cannot dump the poo, but they can buy a grind pump from Florida (which allows them to dump in the ocean) that replaces their pump.... Not a nice thought, but I bet there are more boats than a person thinks.

[Stillh2o]

There's "clearly" more blooms than in the past, from my experience.

We usually swim with the kids on the high-bridge sandbars,

but there were Apple River turd-lets around every time we went up this past summer.

Then we tried at my in-laws house, just south of Beanies, only to find a St. Patrick's Day green swill on his beach.

Does anyone know the effect on the fish? Does it affect the bite differently for each species?

Here's a link to more info than you may want:

http://www.pca.state.mn.us/water/basins/stcroix/index.html

[marble-eye]

I have some land on Squaw Lake, which has a bloom issue. There is green and blue algae. Green is good, blue is poo. Green is the start of the food chain, which the DNR said was actually good, but I noticed that the fish taste off. The green algae may be the reason that people are seeing more baitfish surface feeding. This year on the Riveria, I have noticed more weeds where there were none, in over 25 years of fishing. If we get lots of snow this year, the croix should flush to normal. I have not used the camera, but last year I noticed that the top would be cloudy, and the bottom was clear. I think it is more of a temperature issue now. The water is way too hot.