The drain looks like a sandy, silty road with black footprints in it, but it's deep water covered in a small, reddish brown pond weed, the first few small patches appeared two weeks ago and now nine and a half miles of drain are covered like this and it makes the water unfishable.
We watched a coot and cormorant diving and when they emerged through the crust they looked like some small polka dot covered monsters. Don't be fooled into thinking it's shallow in the margins either, there's about eight feet of water once you are past the flag iris and sedge growing in the very edge.
It's going to be interesting to see what clears this away, surely we won't have to wait for the first frost? Maybe wind and rain will shift it or when they start pumping?
We'll report back with further developments.
