Put in canoe at about noon and fished until about 5PM.

Ramp is closed for larger boats, a number of cartoppers and smaller trailerable boats had put in and were fishing... mostly along the edges of the lilies. I would estimate that 10 to 20 percent of the lily pads are stranded on the beach due to the low water. The rest of the lilies are floating in 1 to 2 feet of water.

This is probably the most eutrophic lake I have ever fished. The only bottom I could find that was firm enough to give me a bounceback on the depth finder was a 4 foot channel that started a few hundred yards to the left of the boat ramp. I trolled rapalas and black wooly buggers down the channel going left from the ramp and back into the middle of the lake, around by the bay where the dam (apparently now breached) is located and then down towards sucker Creek (made it about half way). Then worked back to the ramp. No sign of any fish except for a large carp that did a summersault about 50 yards behind the canoe.

I stopped a dozen times but couldn't find any spot where I couldn't hit the very soft bottom with a paddle.

Surface temp started at about 63F and rose to about 69F by the time I headed back. Water is a brownish (tannic) color, but not muddy or real dirty.

My guess is if they don't get the water level up within the next month or so, that the entire lake is going to become choked with weeds. If they don't get the water up by the end of next summer that all the dead weeds will consume every bit of oxygen in the water and the lake will be in danger of going anaerobic.

If I was a Silver Lake regular or owned property around the lake, I would be pretty upset about what's going on there

---