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trollin4trout
06-04-2007, 02:30 PM
Can you say algae bloom? Yuck! The west half of the lake was thick with it and the wind was sweeping it across the lake as the day went by. I haven't ever heard an alert issued for algae at Timothy- it must be harmless- but it always kills the fishing whenever I've been there. We fished from 5:30am Sat to about 5:30pm and caught only 21 trout-ouch. That's a slow day in my book.

Oddly with a bright blue sky and seemed like mid 80's temps we had one cloud over our head in the bright sun begin to rain on us! Incredible.

That wasn't the end though. We left as other clouds began to build up coming in from the south and went back to Clear Lake for the rest of the night. After a couple hours of trolling for just a few fish we saw that big ugly clouds were approaching us from the west. A flash of lightning caught our attention and we could see the progress of the cloud toward us in just 10 minutes. We figured we should head for the ramp now or risk being caught right in the storm. As I changed direction and started plodding towards the ramp (10mph limit at the lake) another bolt of lightning hit just behind the hill next to the lake- :wave:sorry but the speed limit is now being ignored! We HAULED *** to the ramp and of course with the wind and the haste makes waste going full tilt it took us 3 times to get on the trailer. The lightning was frequent and spectacular already and we got out of the water and emptied the boat stuff into the truck and then turned the truck around to watch the show. Don't get to see much lightning in Portland so this was a treat. WOW! It was both cloud to cloud across the sky and straight to the ground bolts or forked. There was also some really great SLOW lightning bolts which would flash/blink/and stay on for about a full second! We saw 5 or 6 of these- they were impressive. Must've had lightning for at least an hour from the first we saw on the lake. A few hit REAL CLOSE with cool thunder clap close behind. Then it began to drip some BIG drops and then it began to downpour BIG drops-I bet the campers never expected this to happen! The lightning seemed to move away and we headed back over the mountain to home- but the show wasn't over- lightning followed us halfway down the other side of Hood. It was almost dark now so the whole sky would light up. Quite an interesting end to a so-so fishwise day.

Thought I had a problem with the truck on the way home as I headed up a small hill in 3rd gear it seemed I had very little power- what the heck- is the AC on or what? I pulled over and let some traffic go by. Over the hill and seemed to be OK- hmmm- what was that about? Got home and unhooked the trailer to push it into the garage- I could barely swing the tongue around, much less push it back- wow must've been a longer day than it seemed! The I realized what wazzup- downpour had filled up the boat!!!!! I drained more than 30 gallons out the next day!

OK- it's barely a fishing story and no pics, but work is way too slow today, so you got to read a ramble on and on.

Anybody else around Mt. Hood see that storm?

joemomma
06-04-2007, 06:38 PM
Great story T4T, had one of those backpacking the high lake's, I thought I was going to mess my pants!

wilsonriverfisher
06-04-2007, 07:01 PM
Nice report there. Nothing like crazy weather on the lake to make trailering the boat a complete nightmare. I cant wait to get my new motor should be the end of the month then I can start Reporting like crazy.

mikebraun
06-05-2007, 08:24 PM
Are you sure it was algea bloom and not pollen:shrug:. I've seen that lake with so much pollen from the fir trees, you couldn't see in the water. Were the ants out yet or did I miss the hatch?

trollin4trout
06-06-2007, 08:14 AM
The first time I ever noticed this on another lake I assumed that it was also pollen from trees. But after hearing about algae blooms in lakes-it seems to be very common- I believe it to be algae and not pollen. Seems like pollen would just float on top and not completely fill the whole water column.:shrug: I've noticed that Ochoco Res. has it pretty severely most of the time and there are few trees around there to contribute pollen. The only time I went to Diamond Lake, it was full of it as far down in the water as you could see- which wasn't very far! Lots of trees there so.....?

I'm on the side of it being algae until someone splains it to be different!

Didn't see any ants- did see a constant flow of orange butterflies all day long. You could hold out your hand and they would land there. One landed on my camera while I was trying to take a picture of another on the boat.
I think they were energizer butterflies- they kept coming and coming.....!