Already!?
 

My first outing of the season yesterday, and I found one of my favorite panfish haunts already taken over by whatever this is - I'm no botanist; I just called it moss. This happened last summer during a hot dry spell but I was surprised to see it had developed so early; was still freezing a couple weeks ago. Anyway I decided I didn't want to spend the day pulling gobs of the stuff off my fly so I moved on...

https://i.imgur.com/MaZS5VCl.jpg

Yuck… did you get a close up pic of the stuff?





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Didn't think to do that. It's close by though; I'll get one.

Looks like whoever owns that pond has work to do.

The invasives have destroyed some of the waters here in the northeast. Hydrilla, eurasian milfoil and water chestnut.





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Had the same experience last week. Every time I reeled in my beetle spin it was covered in the green algae or whatever it is.

Might be duckweed?

It's actually edible and considered a "superfood". Just have to be sure it's from a clean water source.

If it's algae, or one of a few other invasive species, it can be controlled chemically with a herbicide treatment once a year. I treat my ponds every spring for filamentous algae. That's what it looks like but I can't be certain without closeup pics.

I have three ponds that are used for fishing and for irrigation. This stuff gets progressively worse during the summer, when untreated, and clogs the strainers on my irrigation pump's suction pipes. It's a b**ch.

This is what it looks like in the water...

https://i.imgur.com/kAFNjF4l.jpg

and this is what it looks like fished out with a stick...

https://i.imgur.com/35hBMA3l.jpg

and whatever it is, it sure ruins the fishing!

As Stan thought, it’s filamentous algae. Also called hair algae.