Too Much of a Good Thing
My grandma is a great cook, which might be why I grew up with a healthy appetite. Her freshly baked cinnamon rolls were one of my favorites, and one Saturday morning I polished off a whole pan of warm rolls covered with melting peanut butter. Needless to say, I overdid it a bit and was pretty green the rest of the day. This was my first memorable lesson of "too much of a good thing."
For those of you who have fished Pool 1 in the summer, it too can look a little green. This green appearance can also make your stomach ache, but for a totally different reason. All of the vegetation in and on top of the water can make it pretty darn difficult to fish.
Changing Plant Communities in Pool 1
Sixty years ago Pool 1 was forested and looked similar to pools 2 and 3. The plan for the area was to catch water from the Castor River in the fall and flood the impoundments for waterfowl hunting. Unfortunately this plan didn’t work, so early on the decision was made to make Pool 1 into a storage reservoir. This pool is 1 mile wide and 3 miles long. The land falls only 6 feet from north to south, making it a rather shallow lake.
It wasn’t long after Pool 1 was permanently flooded that its potential for fish was realized. Plants responded to the permanent, clear, calm, shallow water. As the timber died back, the aquatic plants surged forward. The change in vegetation from trees to aquatic plants is easy to see. What has been a little more difficult to observe is the constant power struggle and change that has occurred with the plants living in and on the water.
Aquatic Plants Benefit Fish
The floating and submerged vegetation is the blessing and the curse of Pool 1. The big floating leaves provide shade. The submerged stems and leaves provide structure and food for a variety of critters (microbes, bugs and fish of all sizes). Additionally, the plants act as small aerators by taking in carbon dioxide and pumping out oxygen into the water column. Despite Pool 1's shallow depth, the vegetation is what drives the healthy fish population.
Some lakes may be considered great crappie or largemouth bass lakes. However, Pool 1 has a host of species that are a great size to catch, including bluegill, black crappie, largemouth bass, redear, chain pickerel and warmouth. The
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