what's this slime that clog's line.

[URAGANGI]

Last weekend I was fishing norther NSW beaches when I've come across this Sticky Slimy weed encrusted crap. This strange mixture of weed and slime bogs your runner's clogs line and is a hell of a hand full to get off.

What is this stuff. It ranged from the tweed to Sth ballina , What causes it? Is it due to bad weather ect? Once this stuff is around your better off going home cause the fish are scarce when this is around.

cheer's Gavin.

[Slider]

I suspect it would be 'snot weed' mate. A type of 'salp' that feeds on algae and blooms in number after algal blooms. Not good gear.

[URAGANGI]

Slider thank's for the info. Snot weed, creative title, hmmmm,you'd better get author's right's on that. Well crissoned indeed!

It sure as hell takes the fish off the chew.
cheer's Gavin.

[caster226]

comment removed

[URAGANGI]

caster226 Your dead right it stick's to the hairs on your legs. It's like having extra company in the spar ......well....well nuff said. The water wasn't crystal in colour ,but close to perfect all except for this fine debris in the water.

Dad was fishing at pottsville and I was based at south ballina . He called me to tell me that .he had the same problem.Now that's a fair streach of water between here and there. If it's algae could anyone tell me what type.

Tight lines long shift,Gavin

[FNQCairns]

Possibly cyanobacteria, forget the genus that forms strings, there are different types and almost exclusively in Australia entirely natural in extent and timing.

Other option is a dinoflagellate they can be slimy I understand, actually just thinking more about the stuff from when i last saw it, it probably is a dinoflagellate but I have forgotten more than I remember.

[URAGANGI]

WOW FNQ I knew I could count on you! Thank's for being there.

Now I can GOOGLE and YAHOO around alittle. It alway's helps to know what your looking for. Thank's again.

P.S ballina pippi thread It's happening.

Tight lines Gavin.

[cuzzamundi]

Sounds like tricho(desmium?)...Slider is the guru when it comes to that stuff. I remember him telling me all about it a few year ago on here. Maybe he'll come back on and clarify? Dunno, FNQ might be on the money. Either way it's crappy stuff, and has ruined many a session for this chap.

Cuzza

[Slider]

Has been a fair bit of tricho coming in Cuzza, but it doesn't stick to the line or leg hairs like snot weed.

I'm not aware of any research that has been done on snot weed, so my conclusions below are based on observation and a bit of research into salps only. They could be wrong and I'd be interested in other people's thoughts.

Salps are living organisms, which from memory, are usually around 10cm long and finger thickness which feed exclusively on algae. When we get our now frequent algal blooms, the salps reproduce quickly with the abundance of food available. But when conditions alter, such as with a south easterly change that kills off the algae, then the food source is taken away in its near entirety. The salps then die of starvation, break apart and wash inshore.
On Teewah Beach, where algal blooms occur multiple times from September to April, we get an alternating cycle of anaulus australis in northerly winds and snot weed with the south easters. As the sea calms after the southerly, the snot weed deposits on the beach along with the dead algae to plaster the underside of our trucks with sticky, sandy and salty crap that doesn't wash off easily.

I can recall there being snot weed at times in the 70s and 80s, but not with the same frequency and range of today.