Muddy Water

[yakfish]

I got out the kayak and floated around on the Upper Niagara today for a few hours. Got skunked but it was a great day to be out. I also took a drive around looking for new spots to fish. I live in Welland and I know the Welland River stays muddy all the time. But I've seen this all over the Niagara region. Most tributaries along the Niagara river are always mud. The 20 Mile, 16 Mile and 15 Mile are also always mud. So why is this? Most of the bodies have very little current. Even during the summer when there is very little rain runoff. What is the cause? Any thoughts?

[Snags]

It has to do with depth and bottom material. At times as much as 16 mile creek appears stained, it can be clear when you get down to the water level, just being shallow and having a soft mud/clay bottom it can look like it is always mud.

Take Richardsons Creek (Green Ribbon Trail). Brown every day of the week, yet you hike over Martindale Road to the other side and it gets a blue/green color as the depth drops in Martindale Pond.

[smerchly]

Most of the tribs get muddy from farm land run off . The 12 Mile is fed from both Gibby which is semi clear now ,and the Short Hills-Effingham creeks which haven't cleared yet . Same thing with the 15 -16 & 20 Mile Creeks . They are running much slower than a week ago .....good for the spawning fish .

[cplummer]

Hate fishing the mud.

[yakfish]

I guess farm runoff must be the answer. The Welland river never clears up. The 15 and 16 seem to be the same. I haven't spent enough time on the Upper Niagara tribs to know if they will clear or not but any time I've been on any of them they've been mud.

[Gwhunter99]

Jordan usually looks like mud. But with stable weather with little rain I've seen 24-30in of visibility. Dark baits are the way to go

[Tom S]

Combination of a clay plain above the escarpment and surface/agricultural runoff. That clay forms the finest slurry imaginable, and the slightest disturbance is enough to suspend it in the water for quite a while. Mix that with some current and you end up with almost perpetually muddy waters. The amount of agriculture in the region and the abundance of water means that the majority of rain is either ditched or drained off the fields, as compared to areas where that water would be allowed to peculate through the soil. That and clay doesn't really do peculation. Areas like the Norfolk sand plain absorb a lot of the water in the ground and it enters the streams via springs, which means the water is pretty much filtered. Areas like the Canadian Shield don't absorb runoff, but also don't have a lot of silt to add to the water - but the pine mulch does add a lot of tannin, making the water soft and giving it an amber colour.

[bigugli]

I guess farm runoff must be the answer. The Welland river never clears up. The 15 and 16 seem to be the same. I haven't spent enough time on the Upper Niagara tribs to know if they will clear or not but any time I've been on any of them they've been mud.

Actually, sections of the Welland river do clear up nicely in the summer months when rains are minimal and the crops are in holding soil

[Wellcat]

Yes Bigugli is right..Last year was my first full year living on the river and it did clear up from time to time. The one day I was out I could see bottom 10 feet down as I was fishing Italo of Canadian sport fishing came by and he had never seen it that clear. He was fish less that day and so was I and after he left my 5 year old grandson got a bass lol

[yakfish]

The area around meritt island will clear up. I assumed it must be fed by the old canal? I've been on it days when the visibility and current changes several times in just a few hours. That's a strange area. Is really like to know how it's fed and how the current works there. It must be controlled somehow. This time last year it was fairly clear but so far this year it's still mud.

[Wellcat]

The part of river I'm on the water flows both ways I have been told it's controlled at the aqua duct when you get past the Lincoln bridge it's ok. Today on the water it was debris everywhere logs and sticks and other garbage. It floats down river and if it dosent get stuck somewhere it comes back up river. A lot of it stuck on my dock lots of free fire wood