Jordan lake:Talked to the Proffesor at NCSU River net.

I have been talking to the Proffesor and as of right now he has told me:....

Rivernet was out on Lake Jordan on Friday, 06-15-12 nutrient mapping and while we are still downloading and processing the data we found that New Hope Creek, NE Creek, and the Haw River were hot with nitrates. Last year things were drier and we did not document nutrients moving into Jordan Lake after March. This year is very different, nutrient fluxes are up and during the summer biological activity is stimulated by these fluxes.

Jordan Lake has always been a nutrient rich lake. This has, in my opinion, supported a very large shad population. The answer I am still searching for is has the threadfin shad population recovered from two unusually cold winters (not this past one). In the past, in the late evening you could see thousands of small schools of shad working the top of the water. I haven't been to the lake in the late evenings this year, so have any of you guys have a report on the shad?

I don't know if this has anything to do with the fishing being off..I was just asking him about the lake and the catches this year and this is what he was telling me??..so I personally don't know what is up with it.

The last time I had a decent catch on Jordan was the Friday after Thanksgiving last year. I'm looking for reasons why and the science/biology of the lake may have some answers. Add the biology to the warm winter followed by two extremely cold winters and maybe there are some answers out there. Thanks for passing along this informaiton and maybe others can add some as well.

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Originally Posted by JordanLimit

The last time I had a decent catch on Jordan was the Friday after Thanksgiving last year. I'm looking for reasons why and the science/biology of the lake may have some answers. Add the biology to the warm winter followed by two extremely cold winters and maybe there are some answers out there. Thanks for passing along this informaiton and maybe others can add some as well.

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No prob. Bud.

Jordanlimit as far as shad during the bigeyecatfish tourn,I caught plenty of shad from 1nch to 6 inch. I don't think it will take long for them to recover as long as the comarants will leave them be.

Large amounts of nitrates are not good. They usually come from farm runoff but can come from many places. Most of the time if the rain keeps coming it will flush them through but if the ran stops they can cause a quick algee bloom that will soon die and the dieing algee will rot all at once which will burn the oxygen out of the water. This is the same process that killed so many fish in the neuse river below Kinston a few years ago when the city sewage system overflowed into the river. This is the problem some people thought would happen when Jordan was in the planning stages.:dono

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Originally Posted by paddlefoot70

Jordanlimit as far as shad during the bigeyecatfish tourn,I caught plenty of shad from 1nch to 6 inch. I don't think it will take long for them to recover as long as the comarants will leave them be.

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What kind of Shad? Threadfin or Gizzard. I am sure the 6 inch shad are Gizzard.

Monk

Sea Dancer,I don't think both of you guys are referencing the same thing.He mentioned nutrients,and you're talking about fertilizer.

The shad were def. Threadfin shad and where caught at farrinton bridge.

The bigger females we caught this year at Jordan puked up little baby bream in the livewell rather than shad. I also believe they were on the rocks feeding on something other than shad as well last fall.

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Originally Posted by jack

Sea Dancer,I don't think both of you guys are referencing the same thing.He mentioned nutrients,and you're talking about fertilizer.

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Yes we are talking about two different things. The report that Crappie1968 started this thread with refers to the water being "HOT WITH NITRATES" and that is not good.

Farmers across the world spread millions of tonnes of fertilizer on their land each year. This provides plants with the essential elements they need to grow well, such as nitrogen from ammonium nitrate fertilizer. These fertilizers must be soluble in water so that plants can draw up the nutrients through their roots. However, because it is soluble, the fertilizer can be washed from the soil in heavy rain. We say that it is leached out of the soil. And that's when our pollution problems start.

The nitrate fertilizers drain from groundwater into rivers and streams. Once in a river, the fertilizer promotes rapid growth of algae (a tiny plant) on the surface of the water. This stops light reaching other water plants, and also reduces the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. Fish rely on this dissolved oxygen: without it, they die.

Of course, plants produce oxygen when they photosynthesize. So why do the levels of dissolved oxygen decrease as the mass of plants increases? The algae thrive at first, but when they die, micro-organisms have a feast feeding on and decomposing the dead algae. The micro-organisms multiply rapidly with so much food available, and their activity uses up the oxygen in the water – unfortunately for the fish.

If the lake is full of nitrates we may be using the wrong bait. With all the nitrates in hotdogs the Crappie might bite strips of hotdogs.:crazy: rotfl

Kellog

....the enviromental groups fighting closing the dam warned that they were so many pollutants that jordan would of been peasoup and unfit for life....they were wrong on that but nitrtes and other pollutants stay longer in new hope creek(river) above farrington rd......in the haw it is a straight shot to the dam and that water gets "flushed" quicker. above farrington the current is way less and that little opening below farrington rd slows everything.......in july and august lots of times u can go from one side to the other and it is noticibly greener above farrington rd....the pollutants above farringing rd stay there longer because of that bottleneck........still plentyof fish........mack

anothe note...if the haw really floods...I mean really floods the lake rises , duh, but if you look at it alot of times less water is coming out of the dam than comes down the haw.....what happens is this water comes down the haw , straight shot to the dam and it has no where to go except to take a left and go up the new hope river .....I have seen the buoys at 64 pointing upstream the current was so strong from that...
New hope creek and morgan creek join under water just above farrington rd.... that junction is the start(or was) of the New Hope River .....it has considerly less water input than the haw so that side of the lake gets flushed slower.......that is another reason the nutrients stay lonnger above farrington......hope that made sense ..mack

I don't know how the nearby municipalities work around Jordan but I wonder if any of the big retail stores or farming warehouses might store fertilizer where it gets rained on. If so this could lead to possible drainage into the lake. I have a hard time thinking it could be from farming because it is so spread out and generally absorbed by the soil which should act as a filter. There was a similar thing that I am talking about that happened on the Catawba River http://www.catawbariverkeeper.org/ou...e-jan-2004.pdf that eventually came to court hearings and EPA action. If any of you who have more knowledge of Jordan and surrounding cities you may be able to back me up/ correct me if I'm wrong.

P.S. Hi folks from rebel2116 and his computer illiterate grandfather.