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Water Gap Grass

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:23 am
by Castaline
Floated the Worthington area yesterday. Odd amounts of long thin grass at all levels of the water column. Sort of grass you might find along the bank? but odd that its so abundant at this low water time of the year. Don't think T Storm related - Dam releases somewhere upriver? Odd to see in otherwise very clear water. FYI not many smallmouths but very good size..

Re: Water Gap Grass

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:01 am
by Rusty Spinner
Castaline wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:23 am
Floated the Worthington area yesterday. Odd amounts of long thin grass at all levels of the water column. Sort of grass you might find along the bank? but odd that its so abundant at this low water time of the year. Don't think T Storm related - Dam releases somewhere upriver? Odd to see in otherwise very clear water. FYI not many smallmouths but very good size..
Grass or filamentous algae? Two very different things and both live in the Delaware. Grass (aquatic plants, not grasses) grow from the bottom. The algae you see will be drifting throughout the water column and is a PITA if you are nymph fishing which is yet another reason to dry fly or die. :)

This is very common every year on the Delaware. The algae gets torn off the bottom by flows out of the two big dams upstream and float down the entire system.

Re: Water Gap Grass

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:57 pm
by martalus
Castaline wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 8:23 am
Floated the Worthington area yesterday. Odd amounts of long thin grass at all levels of the water column. Sort of grass you might find along the bank? but odd that its so abundant at this low water time of the year. Don't think T Storm related - Dam releases somewhere upriver? Odd to see in otherwise very clear water. FYI not many smallmouths but very good size..

What were you getting them on and what time of day? I always liked a late afternoon/early evening smallie session. Start out subsurface and then throw top water-always lots of fun. How big did they go?

Re: Water Gap Grass

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 3:12 pm
by Castaline
Its definitely grass. Fished bass bugs on top the entire day with bright sun and the fish came up 9 - 11 AM. 18 inches or so. Swinging flies was not possible with all that grass. It was there two days before also. I guess it is the long wavy strands you see coming off the bottom an waving in the current everywhere. Probably an end of summer die off or something. Its a real pain and subsurface flies all the worse. Pretty much have to stay on top to avoid it.

Re: Water Gap Grass

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 3:34 pm
by Rusty Spinner
Castaline wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 3:12 pm
Its definitely grass. Fished bass bugs on top the entire day with bright sun and the fish came up 9 - 11 AM. 18 inches or so. Swinging flies was not possible with all that grass. It was there two days before also. I guess it is the long wavy strands you see coming off the bottom an waving in the current everywhere. Probably an end of summer die off or something. Its a real pain and subsurface flies all the worse. Pretty much have to stay on top to avoid it.
Gotcha. That type of aquatic veg is native and beneficial to macro invertebrates. But can be a PITA fishing subsurface. In low water, hot temp years like this, it grows longer and denser which makes it worse.

Re: Water Gap Grass

Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2020 10:31 am
by martalus
I think grass is also good for YOY bass to hide in and find food. Floods here on the potomac destroyed that grass the last few years which really hurts survivability for the little ones. 18 inches is a heck of a fish-even a 9-10 inch fish will put a bend on a 7 weight rod.