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

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.

July 23, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

The regular summer pattern continues with decreasing water clarity as water moves from inlet to outlet.  Surface water temperatures are approaching 80 degrees, and daytime dissolved oxygen levels are supersaturated.

July 13, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

We just can't seem to catch much of a break in terms of wind.  This seems to be one of the windiest Julys I can remember.  If the spray from the boat is going to hit me in the face, at least it is 73 degrees.  The wind and waves are sure keeping the bottom churned up too, but at the same time it keeps the algae from reproducing so much.

June 10, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

A normal day on Lake Puckaway with a little chop, Bald Eagles in the sky, and fish in the water.  The amazingly clear water of two weeks was lost thanks to storms that brought runoff and waves that stirred up the bottom.  Unlike the lake and the Fox River the Grand River was clearer at 4.6 feet.

April 17, 2014 Water Monitoring Report

Water quality monitoring and several other projects will continue for 2014 due to a grant extension.  Thursday was the first day back on the lake, and it felt great after a very long winter.  Things are pretty normal for this time of year; the water is high, and there are many migratory birds on the lake, more than I have seen in years past.  I counted 43 Common Loons, 3 Bald Eagles, numerous diving ducks and 5 Trumpeter Swans at the mouth of the river to name just a few.  Looking forward to another year on the lake.

October 8, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Fall is in the air, and ducks and geese are on the lake.  Water temperature flirted with 60 F, but it just wouldn't get up there while I was on the lake.  Unfortunately I ran out of time to run up river for a Secchi (water clarity) reading.

September 24, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

September 3, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

So far 2013 had good water clarity by Puckaway standards, unfortunately the heat wave at the end of August and early September caused a large algae bloom that put an end to that.

August 18, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Water clarity continues to be much better than the previous two years.  Hopefully this is a trend that will continue into next year.  Once again I was working on a Sunday when there was heavy boat traffic on the Fox River upstream of the lake.  This traffic above the slow-no-wake zone erodes the banks and kicks up the bottom greatly reducing viability.

Secchi disk was visible while sitting on the bottom of the lake at the inlet, so a true 

August 2, and July 15, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Sorry for the delay.  Water clarity is still much better in the lake than last year although the water is greening up.  Dotted bars indicate the Secchi disk was visible sitting on the bottom, so a true reading is not available.

American Lotus Bed

July 8, 2013 Water Monitoring Reporort

Water nice and warm today, about 81 degrees at 3:00 pm.

July 1, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Water quality seems to have slipped into its typical pattern which should continue through the rest of the open water season.  This pattern is a decrease in water quality as water comes down the Fox River and through the lake.  This pattern developed later than the previous two years, likely because the cool spring has slowed algae growth.  Now with water temperatures in the 70's and 80's the green stuff can grow rapidly.  Still the temperature is cooler than last year, so maybe we will be spared heavy blooms.  Although I don't publish the Grand River measurements on the blog, it again has the highest water clarity measured in the early summer season.  Today it was 4.3 feet, but the Secchi disk was still visible while sitting on the bottom.

June 16, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Happy Fathers' Day!

Many people were out enjoying the lake, with warm temperatures both in and out of the water (74 F).  Unfortunately heavy boat traffic was causing significant shore erosion above and below the the slow-no-wake area.  This, and Saturday's storms left the river turbid while the lake was fairly clear.

June 3, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Today's average in-lake water clarity was 4.2 feet, and was courtesy of a massive zooplankton bloom.  It is massive in that zooplankton are very large, some large enough to see while standing in a boat, and massive in the number of individual tiny animals.  Large zooplankton are very efficient algae eating machines, and graze algae faster than it can reproduce. These zooplankton are feeding the walleye hatchery fish, not to mention yellow perch fry, and many others.  Soon the rapidly growing young fish will drive down the population of large zooplankton and algae will begin to dominate.

Water temperature was 67-70 degrees.

A Water Flea, or Daphnia, like this one from Lake Puckaway is a welcome sight.
Water Fleas eat large amounts of algae, and provide food for young fish.

May 24, 2013 Water Monitoring Report

Relatively heavy rains earlier in the week, coupled with bare ground on the farm fields probably brought in extra sediment down the river and into the lake.

The districts plantings from 2012 struggle to reach the light in turbid water.
These plants in the shallows, are now in the clear, so to speak.