Green Moss in the Mississippi River

Who all has this ?
I noticed it shortly after Ice out on pool 9 and 10. Early March maybe… can’t remember exactly when…
Curious to know how far north and south this is and how/where its coming from ? Who has it, who doesn’t. Any idea how long it will stick around ?
I get it each cast of the jig and plastic, each cast of the crank bait… and yesterday when I was pulling 3-ways ..right at the three way was loaded up completely !!!

Thanks for reading this and I look forward to your replies…

Just my opinion.
I think the Flood State pushes all that winter slough crap out of the river, and this year we didn’t get near flood stage.

There’s some like you describe if you fish near the backwaters on Pool 3 (3rd hand info), but main channel areas not fed by backwaters are clean.

Have had it for about 5 weeks pools 11 and 12. Slimy stuff.

Have not ran into any on Pools 2 or 3.

I have seen it on every pool that I have been on from 4 to 9. I have never seen it like that. It made it almost impossible to pull 2 ways down on 9. Still seeing it while fishing willow cats and cranks.

Thanks,
RVRDUX

If it’s the same stuff I’m thinking of, it’s basically bright green slime that floats around in blobs or coats the bottom in an almost cloud-like fashion. I don’t know about the river but the lake our family’s cabin is on gets this shortly after ice-out and it hangs around until about July. The water is exceptionally clear but this green crap is now everywhere. We never used to get it but we got Zeebs 6-7 years ago and noticed the proliferation of this algae afterwards. I’ve read that it’s indeed native and natural but benefits from Zebra Mussel Poo, essentially. Can’t drag a line or lure through it without the fine strands clinging to it and it does not come off easily. Makes Lindy fishing pretty much impossible and it generally just looks bad to have blobs of green crap floating around. sometimes you cant see the bottom in a few feet of gin-clear water because it’s so thick.

I’ve just been blaming the Asian carp

I was on pool 9 last weekend trolling and pitching jigs from de Soto up to Genoa and it was everywhere I went.

I have fished pools 5A, 6, and 7 and all of the mentioned pools have it. Been years since I have seen it this bad. Makes throwing cranks, swimbaits, and blades tough.

We had some on P2 this weekend…..floating on the surface slack water and eddy current areas. As FBRM mentioned, only in backwater areas and nothing in the main channel. Sure coats a crank bait well.

I saw it on Pool 4 in a few areas, mainly backwater sloughs and a couple wind blown spots on the lake.

What causes it exactly?

Runoff with fertilizer from lawns and fields is a contributing root cause.

Snake ii’s wrote:

Runoff with fertilizer from lawns and fields is a contributing root cause.

X2-Phosphates

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Just my opinion.
I think the Flood State pushes all that winter slough crap out of the river, and this year we didn’t get near flood stage.

There’s some like you describe if you fish near the backwaters on Pool 3 (3rd hand info), but main channel areas not fed by backwaters are clean.

Yeah, there’s some small amount on Pool 3. not really noticeable until you pull out and have a green scum line on the boat. Was just fishing those backwaters this past weekend.

saugeye-steve wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>muskycliff wrote:</div>
Runoff with fertilizer from lawns and fields is a contributing root cause.

X2-Phosphates

We should probably cross reference the green slime posts with the ones about people discussing mowing, their fake green weedless lawns, weed and feed, etc. to start assigning some blame.

buckybadger wrote:

We should probably cross reference the green slime posts with the ones about people discussing mowing, their fake green weedless lawns, weed and feed, etc. to start assigning some blame.

Hotels-Laundry, dishes, lawns
Schools-Laundry, dishes, lawns
Prisons- Laundry, dishes
Laundromats
Car washes
Restaurants-Laundry, dishes
Commercial Laundries

Etc-etc

Have you guys tried squeezing a split shot on your line a ways above the lure? Keeps some slime from sliding down the line to the lure.

I remember seeing it on Big Stone lake all the way up the Minnesota river somewhere between 10-20 years ago. Some years in the spring you could hardly pitch a jig 1 cast without fouling up. It seemed like after big wind churned it up then the slime just floated in the water column.

Interesting how the same slime moss is up and down the river… trying to just pull it off and it disintegrates for the most part…

Most common denominator seems to be low spring flow… but looks like we all agree that it sux

Thanks for all your input !!

Good luck out there !!!

The Tug is the Drug !!