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   This spring and early summer, the lake was crystal clear. This makes for great fishing and pleasant times just boating around. One problem we have is clear water allows sunlight to reach farther into the depths of the lake which encourages weed growth. A few weeds are good as they provide habitat and food source for small fish. Too much weed and grass cover cause problems. I have done a considerable amount of research on ways to control the weeds with less than perfect solutions.

   There are chemical herbicides that are allegedly safe for the fish and other wildlife that use the water. A label from the government on the chemical container stating it is safe does not convince me I would like to eat fish that have been swimming around in water mixed with herbicide strong enough to kill aquatic weeds. I have trust issues with government sponsored labels.

   Another form of weed control is a dye put in the water that blocks the sunlight getting to the growing plants.  Most of the dyes come in an attractive blue color. One drawback is killing too many weeds at one time can deplete the oxygen level in the water causing the fish to die of asphyxiation. The other problem is the cost. It might be practical for a small pond of an acre or less but to treat seventeen acres would cost thousands of dollars.

   As summer wore on, the weed problem only got worse. It got to the point where it was difficult to launch a boat. The weeds coming up from the bottom of the lake would get tangled in the propeller of the boat motor. When a person did get out into the deeper water past the weeds, a fisherman’s hook would become fouled in the submerged weeds on almost every cast. This was very frustrating, but I decided we would just have to live with it until the weeds died back in the fall. I was neither going to spend a fortune on a temporary solution nor risk the health of anybody or anything that used the lake.

   One day, mother nature interceded. The problem of the water being too clear, and the resulting weed growth was corrected by a couple of torrential rainstorms. The ground in the drainage area rapidly became saturated causing most of the rain to run off bringing silt with it. In one day, the lake went from seventeen acres of crystal-clear water to close to sixty acres of what appears to be chocolate milk. With sunlight no longer able to penetrate the cloudy water, the submerged weeds quickly began to die. Though not as severe as the chemical controls of weeds, we did experience a fish kill. When the water level dropped back to normal, we went out in a boat to retrieve the dock that got away and check for damage. We found perhaps a hundred crappie and bluegill that had died. We did not find any dead catfish or bass.

   Nature seems to have a way of correcting problems without our interference. The aquatic weeds are now under control with the only cost being a minor fish kill. The dead fish are rapidly being cleaned up by a pair of eagles, a great blue heron, and the turtles. To me, a minor fish kill is a small price to pay to again have a useable and safe lake full of water.

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