What ices over first. Clear or stained lakes?

[The Yeti]

I've often wondered... Would it be clear watered lakes because stained/bog or tamarac stained lakes retain heat better because of the dark color?

[ilovehardwater]

I would think clear because it has less particles in it. I think it would be like you said the darker lake ratains more heat, but just my guess, depth and amout of water in the lake would probably be big factors in this...just my guess..BT

[Deitz Dittrich]

I dont think that water color plays as large a roll as you think. I think it has most to do with water depth. You see real dark ultra shallow ponds freeze over first... It also helps if the lake is protected from wind.

[Dances with Walleye]

Quote:

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I dont think that water color plays as large a roll as you think. I think it has most to do with water depth. You see real dark ultra shallow ponds freeze over first... It also helps if the lake is protected from wind.

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I have three primary lakes that I hit in both seasons...

Lake 1: Green and weedy... Loaded with Algae blooms even late into the season. Bowl shaped, shallow with a big deep area.

Lake 2: Bowl shaped, shallow and deep... But stained brown...

Lake 3. Multiple structures, rather large, and gin clear.

Lake 2 Freezes first... Followed by lake 1 and finally lake 3... And actually lake 3 seems to have the shallowest ice until late season...

I think it's because the larger amount of water means there's a massive heat sink out there...

And also because the bottom can get sunlight and warm... And the bottom has FAR MORE mass than particulate matter... And just like how your pizza stone is more effective at holding heat than the rack... It's all about the heat energy in dense mass that holds heat.

Last year

[Scott M]

Volume of water has more to do with how quickly a lake freezes over than color of water, as Deitz alluded to.

It's like when you are heating a pot of water. A big pot of water to boil a family picnic's worth of corn on the cob will take longer to heat up than a little saucepan with enough water to boil some noodles. It's the same principle that the energy required to heat or cool water is quite high, 4.181 J/g/K is the specific heat of water (amount of energy required to heat water one degree)

As far as color goes, it really depends on what is in the water. If the solutes in the water lower the freezing point it will take longer to freeze the water. So whether a lake is clear or colored and when it freezes depends on more of what is dissolved in that water.

[lookincalifornia]

AHHH......PHYSICS!!!!

[LMITOUT]

Part of the reason for the clear water can be attributed to the lake being spring fed....this also means they don't freeze as well as one with "stagnant" and dirty water. We have a lake in the area that is spring fed, stays clean almost all year, and freezes later than the rest with questionable ice throughout the season.

[Sandmannd]

Which ever has the coldest water

[fishinJohn]

How about an aerated lake? I have one near me that holds a lot of bass and gills, only around 7 feet deep but it is aerated. The middle never freezes due to the moving water close to the pumps but what about the edges? Better to leave this lake for mid season?

[Scott M]

On public lakes the DNR posts areas to stay clear of giving most people a wide berth of the aerator. You should be safe to fish that little lake until they post thin ice signs. Most aerators don't begin until mid-January. Oxygen concentration really doesn't start to sag until February or March unless there is a lot of snow or ice so they won't begin aerating until a few weeks prior to that time (they also don't want to start too late so that the aerator can never catch up and dissolved oxygen drops too low)

So you should be fine fishing that lake anywhere you please until mid-winter or when the thin ice signs are posted.