Depressing Marion Reservoir conditions

Went to Marion yesterday... beautiful day.. no wind..

The lake was only 3ft high since the middle of last month.
High expectations...other lakes a lot higher than that with
many ramps closed etc.....

all was great until putting the boat in... the water is UGLY.
It is more akin to split pea soup with a green algae bloom!
Like last year.. but earlier.

Fishing was good before the algae... very slow now. The
further up the lake, the worst the bloom. Leaves a nasty
green ring on the boat... caught one white bass and one
drum and gave up.

Marion's watershed just has too much cultivated ground with
over zealous fertilizing farmers compared with lakes whose
watersheds are rocky grass covered pastures. High nitrogen
causing these blooms.. and then hot temps and kaboom!!

It is a shame and frustrating. Dropped by Eldorado today. They
are only recommending using Shady Creek Marina's ramp.. but
the water is well into the parking lot there too.... not yet
letting out water.

Thanks for the update was thinking of running up this weekend but not if the lake is like that!!!

pretty sad right now but it may be a blessing 2 3 years from now???

:dono Been fishing down there for the last three weeks and doing real well until the wind blows too hard to fish. This lake had no reports for over a month and was the best kept secret in Kansas. If anyone was watching the COE Tulsa district they would have seen this lake has had little inflow and no outflow for over a month. The lake is only one foot over conservation pool but looked high because it was under pool for so long. I have seen no green algae warnings as yet. Will be fishing there again. When the wind kicks the greenish water disperses. There were no reports from KDWP on fishing reports from May 1st to June 3rd. Would not be scared to fish it at all depending on weather prolly be there fri, sat, and sun. Good luck fellas!!:cheers2

I was last at Marion on June 8th. Started drifting for walleye. After about 5 or 6 drifts only had one drum and a small channel cat. Changed to trolling the Cottonwood point side of the lake and did manage to catch 2 walleye but they were both about 16 inches. We had been up there 2 other times in the last 2 weeks and it has been very slow fishing both times. You can see the water getting greener and I would guess another algae bloom is on it way. I was hoping that since they got a little extra water in the lake that might prevent a bloom this year.

:twocents Drifting and trolling didn't work for us either. We started jigging them on the ledges and hit them. Tossed marker bouy on the shallow side of ledge and worked out deeper tried to keep vertical as much as possible, when working back up the ledge .25 to .35 on the trolling motor, using heavy jigs caught them in all depths and there were several year classes from 12 inches to 22 inches and everything in between. Lots of boats drifting and not doing to well, we thought they were drifting too fast for the bite. Don't be afraid to slow way down, good luck.:highfive

Thanks for the info jigger2, I will give that a try some time next week.

Well, I hope the lake clears... I talked to a state park officer who was checking boats when we came in... he said they were in process of closing down the swimming and
issuing and advisory but hadn't quite happened yet. He said the problem is actually happening AFTER a rain coupled with warm/hot sunny days. That sounds like nitrogen
fertilizer washing into the lake. At any rate, it was ugly when we were there Tuesday. I've had good luck overall at the lake.. better than Eldo... and there is a new bait
shop 1 north and 3/4 west of cottonwood point (called the bait bucket) that I would really like to see make a go of it. Those that go, let us know the status please.

I read last night that Marion is now one of the lakes with an active warning for the algae.

Went to Marion Friday and caught some walleye between 19 and 21 inches had several catfish bite in the 2 to 4 pound range and some fiddlers. Did not see evidence of green water but we were never close to shore except unloading and loading and no evidence at the docks either. Not saying it isn't true but I have not seen it yet. One day out of the last ten it had a greenish tint to the water but nothing like the pics on KDWP site of what a green bloom looks like. I did see the warning on their page. KWA has a tourney there in two weeks, would be interesting to see if it is cancelled. Will be there Sunday so will take a look at the shore line. Did see the swimming beach with tons of geese on it but again nothing like pics of what KDWP shows on their site.

Look a little closer cause I could sure see it when I was there on the 6th of June, pretty heavily prevalent.

:donoNot For me not having a biological background I have to go off info put out by KDHE and KDWP. Could you go to the pictures on KDWP and tell me which picture looks like Marion did on the 6th of June. My limited knowledge of science tells me that rain washes a lot of nutrients into our lakes and can cause color changes and floating specks of all sorts of things maybe these blooms are harmful and maybe they ain't, I'd suggest they err on the side of caution. Sure were a lot of boats out that particular day, some even mean mugging you for being on a lake where the algae were blooming!!!:Rofl

It was also confirmed yesterday that we will be having our Walleye Tourney there next weekend.

I went to marion on the 16. The water in the morning had a green tint to it but by 2 o'clock it was turning into pea soup. We quit at 3 and by then it was getting pretty bad. Visibility was down to zero and there was definitely blue green algae. Didn't slow the fishing down any, limit of cats, wipers and a good number of whities.

As we all know, weather conditions change quickly in Kansas and so can algae conditions. Calm, sunny, flat water days allow for prime conditions for blooms and the accumulation of algae in some areas. Wind and waves may break up the algae concentrations and this stirring of the water column can make it harder to see any algae that may be present.

Here's a couple of recent pictures from Marion Reservoir.

Here's a pic of the "green tint" that some of you mentioned in your posts. This pic was taken May 27.
Attachment 207046

This pic was taken on June 19th...
Attachment 207047

For more info go to the KDWPT website. Current blue-green algae bloom watches and warnings can be found HERE.

Marion Reservoir is currently under the WARNING status as of June 19th. Lakes are tested weekly and the watches/warnings page is updated accordingly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Craig Johnson

As we all know, weather conditions change quickly in Kansas and so can algae conditions. Calm, sunny, flat water days allow for prime conditions for blooms and the accumulation of algae in some areas. Wind and waves may break up the algae concentrations and this stirring of the water column can make it harder to see any algae that may be present.

Here's a couple of recent pictures from Marion Reservoir.

Here's a pic of the "green tint" that some of you mentioned in your posts. This pic was taken May 27.
Attachment 207046



This pic was taken on June 19th...
Attachment 207047

For more info go to the KDWPT website. Current blue-green algae bloom watches and warnings can be found HERE.

Marion Reservoir is currently under the WARNING status as of June 19th. Lakes are tested weekly and the watches/warnings page is updated accordingly.

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Thanx for the picture of the 27th of May, looks really green tinted then!

Very windy at Marion today, but not much "green" in the mainlake areas...

Attachment 207117