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Location: Eastern Ontario | Is there another name for what we muskie anglers call sand grass? When I Google I get grasses that grow on dunes and beaches or adds for seed for sandy soil. |
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Posts: 34
| Look under 'chara weed' and you should find what you want. |
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| Does "weed" mean the same as "freakishly tall hockey goon"?  I've never heard chara being called sand grass. Not saying you're wrong...
Edited by Chemi 4/19/2015 10:05 PM
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Posts: 1084
Location: Aurora | Does it look like this?
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 AmVal.jpg (6KB - 413 downloads)
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Posts: 1828
| I think this is what most people call "sandgrass":
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/aquatic_plants/algae/chara.html
What Sidejack posted I think is called "eel grass". I could easily be wrong on that. |
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Posts: 1247
Location: Walker, MN | Sidejack - 4/19/2015 10:41 PM
Does it look like this?
^^I have always called this sand grass^^
I call Chara well, Chara. |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | Sidejack - 4/19/2015 10:41 PM
Does it look like this?
We call that Flambeau grass(north fork). It's where it got it's origins in Topraider fouling. |
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| Yes, chara. But that MN DNR website does list sand grass as another name for it.  
Edited by Chemi 4/20/2015 8:04 AM
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | What I call sandgrass, I think is really Chara. I started a post on this a long time ago on here and I think we kind of came to the conclusion that when anglers find weeds growing in 25+ feet of water, we just call it sandgrass.
I have some clear lakes where I fish but have never stumbled on a whole lot of Chara/Sandgrass growing in deep water. Will pick up a stalk or see one floating from time to time but that's about it. Sounds like it can be worth finding.
You'll know you've found it when you crush it between your fingers and it smells like a skunk.
Edited by curleytail 4/20/2015 8:32 AM
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Posts: 688
Location: Already Gone | Tall, lanky, tough as nails. Bad breath. Can't spell. You don't don't find it...it finds you.
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Chara.jpg (2KB - 423 downloads)
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| I had this same question and dove on a couple of "famous" WI "sand grass" spots and found Chara. |
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Location: Sawyer County, WI |
If you're looking for Chara, your best bet is to try a Slovakian golf course. That's where he'll be. |
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| There's lots of it in Lake St. Clair, and I've heard some there call it skunkweed or stinkweed. |
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Posts: 265
Location: Hudson,WI | Chemi - 4/20/2015 9:17 AM
There's lots of it in Lake St. Clair, and I've heard some there call it skunkweed or stinkweed.
It smells like muskie |
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Posts: 25
| Sand grass as it is commonly known is actually not "grass" at all, it is a form of algae. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/CharaFragi... |
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Location: north central wisconsin | Reef Hawg - 4/20/2015 7:48 AM
Sidejack - 4/19/2015 10:41 PM
Does it look like this?
Sidejack, we call that particular stuff (eel grass ), Flambeau grass. It's where it got it's origins in Topraider fouling. |
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Posts: 567
| One of my fav spots that my buddies all hate is a huge sand grass area ... grows 10-14 feet tall in 23 Ft of water .. and my nickname for it is " muskie grass" |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | I never realized it grew anywhere near that high I always thought it was a low carpet |
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| horsehunter - 4/20/2015 9:23 PM I never realized it grew anywhere near that high I always thought it was a low carpet Me, too. Never seen it more than 5-6" tall, and usually less than that. |
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Posts: 34
| Chara really seems to vary year to year. One of my most productive spots an a lake trout lake in Canada is a clay reef that tops out in the 19'-23' range. Some years it is almost non-existant and the next year it will be 15' tall! Chara hold TONS of bugs and there are lots of baitfish there because of it (especially perch) and these spots are great muskie spots in the summer and lake trout spots in the winter. Eelgrass on the other hand has been pretty worthless for me--and even worse to try to run a bucktail or spinnerbait thru! |
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Posts: 1828
| Brett Erickson - 4/20/2015 9:33 PM
Chara hold TONS of bugs and there are lots of baitfish there because of it (especially perch) and these spots are great muskie spots in the summer and lake trout spots in the winter.
That's very interesting to me. One spot I fish for lake trout in the winter has chara down to (you might not believe me) 60 feet of water. I never really associate lakers with weeds, but this soft-bottom hump has thick weeds on bottom, more so on one side than the other, and the lakers are ALWAYS around there. I never really attributed the consistent fish to the weeds on bottom.
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Posts: 567
| I should add that the water I fish up north is classic ultra clear lake trout water . |
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Location: new richmond, wi. & isle, mn | The Chara(skunk weed) I'm thinking of is what covers the Cass area lake's shallow bars. Like Brett said, I've called eel grass the shallow grass that is tough to fish with anything but a topwater. I have found a strange deep water weed(?) in certain spots that does somewhat resemble Chara. It grows up off the bottom and is usually blackish in color. Has that same skunky smell. Is this a different form of Chara?
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Location: Walker, MN | jchiggins - 4/21/2015 4:54 PM
The Chara(skunk weed) I'm thinking of is what covers the Cass area lake's shallow bars. Like Brett said, I've called eel grass the shallow grass that is tough to fish with anything but a topwater. I have found a strange deep water weed(?) in certain spots that does somewhat resemble Chara. It grows up off the bottom and is usually blackish in color. Has that same skunky smell. Is this a different form of Chara?
I believe you are right, the shallow stuff (3-6 f.o.w) in Cass and on Sand Point at Leech is what we call Chara and looks like the pictures. I always call the deep black stuff "mustache weed" as my cranks come up with a dandy flavor savor every time. Probably not the technical term however... |
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Posts: 34
| I believe you jaultman as I've trolled spoons for lakers with a 10oz snap weight and have put the boat in neutral so it would fall (kind of yo-yos the bait when you put the boat back in gear and the lakers love to chase it!) and let it hit bottom in 90' of water and have brought up chara from those depths.
As far as the shallower black stuff, I do not know if it is chara. It is a fibrous/filamentous algea like chara but I believe it is not the same. Get a lot of this on LOTW if you get into about 6' of water while fall trolling.
Edited by Brett Erickson 4/21/2015 10:54 PM
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| Brett Erickson - 4/20/2015 9:33 PM Chara really seems to vary year to year. One of my most productive spots an a lake trout lake in Canada is a clay reef that tops out in the 19'-23' range. Some years it is almost non-existant and the next year it will be 15' tall! Chara hold TONS of bugs and there are lots of baitfish there because of it (especially perch) and these spots are great muskie spots in the summer and lake trout spots in the winter. Eelgrass on the other hand has been pretty worthless for me--and even worse to try to run a bucktail or spinnerbait thru! You described a spot I used to ice fish on Crow to the tee! Fun spot to fish as I think just about every species in the lake used it. We've caught perch, whities, Lakers, muskies, etc off of it. Never big numbers for Lakers, but they were almost always big fish. |
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