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Re: recent trip to lake eufaula, AL

Hello,

Yes it was very fun.  Just for a bit of background info on this lake.
It's feed from the chatachoochee river which starts north of atlanta, GA.
Currently atlanta, GA is getting fined several million $ (us) a day for
pollutant dumping into the river. about 150 miles south of there (eufaula)
it's still somewhat polluted, locals here have been known to come down
with some nasty forms of illnesses. 

The iron was from my lamotte iron test kit model# P-62, I ran the test two
times.  The ammonia test was from aquarium pharm's dropper test.  I only
wish I had a lamotte or hach test kit to measure phosphates.  I would
guess they would definately measure rather on the high side.  As for the
high ammonia readings there are over 200 species of birds, about 1,000
alligators and who knows what else in the water.  This level does seem
high and am not sure of the current fish count.

The water color was a dark muddly black/brown looking and in places there
was distinct smells, usually closer to shore and on some of the sandbars

I did find tracks from one massive alligator.  I took my shoes off and
walked along side the tracks then took several photo's of it.  The
alligator tracks was about 1" smaller than my footsteps (I wear a size 10)
The tail track was close to 4-5" wide.  I only wish I had some plaster of
paris with me to mold the tracks.

Untill next time!

Ed

 
On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Roger S. Miller wrote:

>
>On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Ed Street wrote:
>
>> Today I went to lake eufaula, AL in search of alligators. We just found a
>> few tracks, HUGE tracks at that.
>
>Cool.  Sounds like fun.
>
>> I took some water samples and this is
>> the results.  pH 7.2, alkalinity 2, GH 4, nitrates 5ppm, iron 0.5ppm,
>> copper 0 ppm, ammonia 0.1 ppm.
>
>The iron and ammonia numbers are unusual for natural water, though
>sometimes natural organic iron complexes can produce high iron levels.
>Possibly the test kits produced false positives for one reason or another.
>
>> From observation I noted there was a distinct abscence of any aquatic
>> plants,
>
>How was the water color and clarity?  Possibly the lack of submersed
>plants is due to grazing by carp.  Otherwise turbid water and floating
>algae tend to discourage aquatic plants.
>
>> Next trip I will be getting more into the grasslands and looking for
>> tracks, markings and the like.  With luck I'll be able to spot this
>> elusive repitle and get some very good photo's.
>
>When last I was in alligator water we had more trouble avoiding them than
>we did finding them.  That was in the coastal marsh south of Houma, La.
>They liked to bask on clear ground near open water and they weren't very
>shy of people - even people on noisy airboats.  The water there was clear;
>fresh water was stained brown and brackish water was almost colorless.
>Aquatic plants grew in all the reasonably shallow water.  I don't know if
>you would want to do this (I wouldn't), but the locals there told me that
>alligators could be baited with red winged blackbirds.
>
>
>Roger Miller
>
>
>
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