November 7, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

This is the last day of my water quality monitoring for this year.  Temperatures were cold both in the air and lake with the water around 42 degrees.  I didn't meet any fishermen on the lake other than the carp fisherman who were seining the East Basin where one of my sampling sites is, so I was unable to sample there today.

I was unable to sample the East Basin due to the presence of the carp fishermen.

October 22, 2014 Water Monitoring Report and Field Notes

The weather yesterday was nearly the opposite as October 8th when I conducted the last monitoring.  Driving through the countryside from Oshkosh to Lake Puckaway was a foggy business, but one for one or two miles did I feel the need to slow down to 45 mph due to low visibility.  When I arrived at the Lake about 8:00 am the shore was lightly foggy but the lake looked like a soup.  I put the navigation lights on the boat and decided to head out.

Not far in the lake visibility went down to 50ft, maybe even less.   I putted along at 4-6 mph and navigated by GPS, and occasionally stopped to listen for other boats.   There was no wind and the lake was completely still.  Every now and again I startled groups of 3 -6 Rudy Ducks, and the odd fish near the surface.  As I was about to Marquette the fog began to lift slightly and I could make out the shapes of the cane beds in Blue Bill Bay.  Even though my GPS is very good I kept well to the south of the dredge bank to avoid slamming into the rocks.  With the fog lifting the sun slowly appeared, and when very dim I could make out a few sunspots easily on the surface of the Sun.  I've since learned one of them, called AR 2192 is the size of Jupiter, and is the largest in years.  The appearance of the sun also created an odd light phenomenon in the form of a giant white lens.  Very interesting  phenomenon, that I have never seen before.

Sunspots

A little farther East the fog was showing more weakness and a slight break revealed the carp fishing boats waiting in the stillness to begin their days fishing.  Just as I arrived to the East shore the fog began to lift quickly.  I scared up a few ducks that took a wrong turn.  Bang, Bang!  Sorry ducks, your welcome hunters.

The bright sun, lighting up a section of the fog on Lake Puckaway.

The rest of the day the wind was calm to non-existent and and cloud cover was about 10%, and the sun that provided quite a show in the morning, kept me warm the rest of the day.  Surface temperatures of the lake were in the upper 40's, winter is coming.  Water clarity was pretty uniform throughout the lake, and much better then the 8th when the surf was up.

October 8, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

The lake was rocking and rolling with winds blasting past 30 mph.  It is very unusual that I go out during high winds and this was certainly the windiest I have ever ventured out on Lake Puckaway.  The waves make sampling and everything else much more difficult.  I am glad I got there though, it will be a good test to see how much phosphorus is kicked up from the wind during this events.  The wind created a constant flurry of cattail fluff, unfortunately about 99% will be from non-native invasive cattail species.

The carp fisherman were also out there braving the wind and waves, I can't say I envied them.  I heard there efforts paid off and there are getting a good haul of marketable fish.

There was a fair number of Rudy Ducks bobbing up and down in the water and some wood ducks hanging around at the mouth of the river.

Water clarity as measured with a Secchi disk.  The disk was still visible while
resting on the bottom at the Fox River Inlet.

September 25, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

Fall is in the air.  Water was 64 degrees F.  Water clarity is close to normal for this time of year.  As the season winds down I'll have updates on this years projects.  Enjoy the nice weather forecast for the next several days.

Bulrushes planted in 2013 are thriving at the Eastern Dredge Bank

Wild Rice on the Dead River/Lake Puckaway

September 11, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

My body wasn't quite ready for the chilly weather of just under 50 degrees when I started out this morning.  Water was still relatively warm at 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Although it is still late summer, fall is in the air.  Some of the leaves are turning yellow and many of the aquatic plants are starting to uproot.  

 

August 25, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

Today's water quality monitoring followed early morning thunderstorms that downed a few trees and branches.  The temperature was forecast to be in the low 90's, but temperatures were only in the low 80's, with a water temperature of 77 degrees  This summer continues to be mild.

August 8, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

Water clarity is relatively good for this time of year.  Even with calm weather last week algae blooms were not too bad for August.  The same could not be said for algae on Lake Poygan which had large clumps of algae floating on the surface in many places.

Water clarity on the Fox River in the Puckaway area improved upstream as usual for summer.  This year we are monitoring water quality on Buffalo Lake as well.  Unfortunately our monitoring sites are on bridges and we can't use Secchi disks from high vantage points, so we will only be able to use other parameters like Chlorophyll a and total phosphorous concentrations to make comparisons.  Still it will be very interesting to see the results when they come back from the lab.