[bd-]

Woah - 94 degrees? Those surface temps are insane! That's like a hot tub.

I'm not surprised it was slow - even if it's a bit cooler down deep, I'm sure the fish would rather wait until after dark for it to cool down before they'd want to go chasing food around. I'm like you though - I just never have enjoyed night fishing very much. At the rate we're going, it may still be too hot in September - you might have to wait until mid-October!

The tea-colored water on the lower lake is weird. We haven't had enough rain to discolor the water. Even if we did get some, the ground is so dry there would not be much runoff. My best guess is that there is a massive algae bloom going on. We had a ton of rain in the spring, which has surely flushed large amounts of "organic material" into the lake. That acts like a big dump of fertilizer - indeed, much of the material is fertilizer runoff and livestock waste from farms upstream, as well as water treatment byproducts from upstream towns like McMinnville. This organic fertilizer and the extremely hot surface temps create a greenhouse of sorts for algae to grow out of control.

It will be bad news for the lake's water quality as the year progresses and the algae starts to die off. At that point, the amount of bacteria in the lake increases, and the bacteria consume dissolved oxygen, especially in the deeper cooler water where the fish are currently seeking thermal refuge. Fish have to choose between having tolerable water temperature and having enough oxygen.

I noticed that the Corps is already opening a sluice gate during generation now, which is a sign that dissolved oxygen in the deep water coming through the dam is already depleted. It is really unusual to see that happening in July. Most years, we make it until at least mid-September before the oxygen levels get so low that the sluicing is necessary.

bd