I just noticed that Mark Clements from Clement’s Fishing Barge below L&D 9 posted on his website this morning about the massive amounts of weeds coming through this fall.
http://www.clementsfishing.com/fishingreports.html
It sounds like this could be an ongoing problem for many of the pools.
I was there both Sat and Sun I saw first hand. Still filled 4 bags with filets though. Wasn’t easy, my leg still smarts from working that trolling motor nonstop. Jig and meat with weight enough to get it down and a stinger doesn’t hurt. Yesterday the wind was blowing us Up current with white caps. Wore me out
Stable water levels all year, sudden cold temps and the fact there’s a 10+ square mile grass flat right above that dam I’m sure doesnt help.
I would recommend heading up to Red Wing. No grass and better fishing… 
The link to me is pretty disgusting. Does this guy not realize that more aquatic vegetation means more and bigger fish? That veg is creating habitat for all the juvenile fish that seek refuge from predators and it is creating habitat for aquatic insects which panfish and most juvenile fish feed on.
By the USFWS helping the ducks it is also helping the fish. This guys is so short sighted that he cant look past a week of floating uprooted veg. He should stop and think about what he is ranting about. Atleast he did give the proper contact so that person can set people straight.
Common Lake/River turn-over…happens every year. Seems to be a little worse from what he explains.
Plus were sending some grass to those lower pools. 
ie: Ft Madison
I was on pool 10 today with same results.Two small fish and lots of weeds.The weeds do seem to get worse every year,but thats life. Hopefully they will be gone in a couple off weeks.
Right. We’ve only been going up there for 7 years or so. But every year they seem to get worse.
It’s a little more than frustrating when you get a wad of grass the size of a baseball or cantaloupe at close to every toss.
But thank goodness for fireline! Some of those clumps might break the normal mono…
We’ve been experiencing the same thing on pool 14 for the last 10 years or so. Pool 13 has a tons of shallow grass flat acres, and the weeds and grass usually start in late September and go on all fall, on and off.
I believe another reason for the increase here is the water quality of the river. With better farming practices and better pollution control up and down the river. Talking to some really old timers around here, this grass flow was normal here even before the lock and dam system was in place. Herbicide runoff and other pollutants where blamed by them for “killing off” the river. Now the chemicals used are better and less transient, the application rates more controlled, and the river greener.
Don’t get me wrong, I get very frustrated with the grass and weeds, but take it as part of what mother nature has provided, not as a nusiance caused by duck enthusiasts.
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We’ve been experiencing the same thing on pool 14 for the last 10 years or so. Pool 13 has a tons of shallow grass flat acres, and the weeds and grass usually start in late September and go on all fall, on and off.
I believe another reason for the increase here is the water quality of the river. With better farming practices and better pollution control up and down the river. Talking to some really old timers around here, this grass flow was normal here even before the lock and dam system was in place. Herbicide runoff and other pollutants where blamed by them for “killing off” the river. Now the chemicals used are better and less transient, the application rates more controlled, and the river greener.
Don’t get me wrong, I get very frustrated with the grass and weeds, but take it as part of what mother nature has provided, not as a nusiance caused by duck enthusiasts.
good point, but all this should make the river less green. (don’t get me started on phosphorus run off…. Its nearly impossible for P to leach out of the soil. 
)
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