# St. Marys help



## AnglinMueller (May 16, 2008)

Thinking about heading up to grand lake st. marys in a few weeks. I was wondering if someone could tell me how the bass fishing there is this time of year and where to start on the big lake. I only have a small boat so I won't really be fishing out in the middle of the lake just staying right around shore. Also do people up there catch walleye close to shore at night or do they mostly stick to the more open water.
Thanks for any help in advance!


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## Buck36 (Apr 10, 2008)

You may not have heard about their algae problem up there.

http://www.epa.ohio.gov/pic/glsm_algae.aspx


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## AnglinMueller (May 16, 2008)

No actually I had not. Looks like there won't be any good fishing there. Oh well guess i gotta find someplace else to go. Does Indian Lake have a similar problem?


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## KeithOH (Mar 26, 2010)

AnglinMueller said:


> No actually I had not. Looks like there won't be any good fishing there. Oh well guess i gotta find someplace else to go. Does Indian Lake have a similar problem?


Indian Lake does not have the algea problem.


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## WishinIwasFishin (Apr 5, 2005)

I talked to some people last night at a party. They said it was fine one day, and then like pea soup the next day. They said their boat wake looked like green foam. I hate to hear that. Indian is fine.


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## CHOPIQ (Apr 6, 2004)

Was at St Marys last week, had a blue green foam on the water. There are warnings about even touching the water. Go to Indian and hit the reserve area for bass.


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## Lynxis (Sep 21, 2009)

Ive done quite a bit of thinking about St. Marys.

I gotta believe that lake is done for.

150 years of nitrogen being dumped into a mud puddle that is 6 feet deep.

Nowhere for the contents to go. Everything just loads up in there.


They should drain it, dig a ditch from one side to the other, funnel the creeks to the ditch, and section it off and sell it for farm land. Their chemicals are what ruined it, so they might as well reap the benefits.

People that lived on the lake used to dump raw sewage into the lake, so they exacerbated the problem. They dont deserve to have the lake either.

Indian is still fishable, but with the amount of development and quantity of boat traffic over the last 60 years, its fate cant be much off of what st marys is.


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

Was at Grand Lake St Marys yesterday(Sun 27th) and there the week before during the super bloom. The blue/green/white scum and foam from the super bloom is largely gone. The effects of the super bloom remain.......a large fish kill, water almost over night transitioned from a modest green hue to a heavy green, and foul odor.

All spring the lake had great water clarity......many fisherman in their 40's and 50's commented they'd never seen the lake so clear. But, all spring the lake escaped the heavy spring rains and runoff that goes with it. Unfortunately, the month of June reversed it all. Repeated downpours this month meant repeated runoff from the southern watershed which is largely agricultural and livestock operations.

People were talking that all the efforts to improve water quality were finally paying off. The scum/foam of the prior bloom was enough to make you cry. It's unknown if the odor comes from the fish kill, the algae, or both. We're told this is a different strain of algae than in prior years, but one not new to Ohio (found previously in Lake Erie and either Buckeye or Hoover). 

All spring we were treated to seeing St Mary's as it could be. The scale may be different, but to commerce in the area this is as devastating as the oil spill in the gulf. Residents and businesses in the area can't do this alone, but it can be done. We've seen what it looks like and it is preventable.


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## RedCanoe59 (Apr 9, 2009)

this is from yestardays's Daily standard



http://dailystandard.com/archive/story_single.php?rec_id=12278



the algea has the same toxin's found late year



zara spook: maybe the good spring that everyone was talking about was Grand Lake's Swan Song.....i hope not but it doesn't look good especially if it gets hot and the winds die down for an extended period of time


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

RedCanoe59 said:


> this is from yestardays's Daily standard
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Your link says the toxins are "new" toxins of cylindrospermopsin and saxiotoxin. Last years toxins were MICROCYSTIN and levels of it this year are way down from last year, all well below 2009 levels.

I hope you aren't clairvoyant in suggesting we may have seen Grand Lake's swan song. I'd like to think better days are ahead, but have nothing to support it. It would be a travesty and sorry indictment of of our society and leadership.


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## GLSM (Apr 11, 2009)

I live here at Grand Lake.I feel the fishing this year is as good,with the exception of crappie,as I have ever seen.The algae started about 3 weeks ago after a 3-4" deluge of rain.I live right on the lake and it is hard to believe that I can see down as far as I can,but the water is bad.
They are saying,don't tube and don't ski.Other than that,they aren't saying anything will happen to you physically.
Bass fishing has been excellent and the walleye fishing is just starting to catch on a little here.
It's sad to see,but the state really needs to put an end to whatever is going on here,whether it be farmer or local resident.


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## Lynxis (Sep 21, 2009)

Some disgusting pictures from this past weekend.


























And below is a video from 2 weeks ago
http://dailystandard.com/video/index.php?video_id=41&res=480


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

GLSM said:


> I live here at Grand Lake.I feel the fishing this year is as good,with the exception of crappie,as I have ever seen.The algae started about 3 weeks ago after a 3-4" deluge of rain.I live right on the lake and it is hard to believe that I can see down as far as I can,but the water is bad.
> They are saying,don't tube and don't ski.Other than that,they aren't saying anything will happen to you physically.
> Bass fishing has been excellent and the walleye fishing is just starting to catch on a little here.
> It's sad to see,but the state really needs to put an end to whatever is going on here,whether it be farmer or local resident.


Agree with you 100%. Don't know which side of the lake you live on, but I live on the south side. This past Sunday I saw nothing like the photos posted here from Lynxis. Photos are exactly the way it looked prior Sunday. East bank and south side that scum was dispersed. Did it look per photos where you live?


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

Yes Lynxis..............disgusting and exactly the way it looked on south side Sunday 19th. I'm guessing these photos from last Friday were on north side, maybe west bank? Our scum on south and east banks had dispersed by Sunday(yesterday). Maybe the winds from south blew it all to north side.

Thanks but I've seen the video enough to turn my stomach and witnessed this new algae live and in person. Sometimes you have to hit bottom before enough people get ticked enough to fix something. This may be the catalyst. But, some of us are encouraged by our spring water quality, the improved fishing, and aren't ready to throw in the towel.


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## Lynxis (Sep 21, 2009)

Pictures were near the 3rd shelterhouse, east bank.


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## RedCanoe59 (Apr 9, 2009)

has the alge caused any fish kills???? When i was in college i remember coming home and seeing a sea of dead fish wash up on the west side of the lake mostly shad but some really big flatheads which are pretty rare.....but it was a winter kill issue....last year i heard about a few of the back channels having dieoffs


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

Lynxis said:


> Pictures were near the 3rd shelterhouse, east bank.


Sunday that stuff was no longer evident. Wind/wave action was significant in front of the afternoon storm which likely broke up the surface stuff and dispersed down into the water column.


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## zaraspook (Jun 16, 2009)

RedCanoe59 said:


> has the alge caused any fish kills???? When i was in college i remember coming home and seeing a sea of dead fish wash up on the west side of the lake mostly shad but some really big flatheads which are pretty rare.....but it was a winter kill issue....last year i heard about a few of the back channels having dieoffs


Yes.......fish kill occurred from oxygen depletion, mostly evident Mon-Tues time frame last week, but I think there was also a fish kill the previous week. I did not see it myself....saw video and neighbors on the lake filled me in. No evidence of fish kill remained in my channel as of Sunday, but neighbors said several hundred floating at one time.

On Sunday at East Bank marina I saw leftovers of the fish kill. Easily a couple hundred floating in the channel immediately south of marina where boat ramp and a few docks are located. More small bluegills than anything, but channel cats were next in number. Fish were so bloated it's hard to tell actual size, but 3-4 lb channel cats were numerous. Only saw one carp and also one sheephead. I looked for but did not identify any crappies, bass, shad, or walleye. 

The bluegill and channel cat population took a serious hit. Would have preferred decimation of the carp population but not the case from what I saw.


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