Anglers worried about algal issues in their favourite Hawke's Bay rivers and streams could find an answer to their dreams kilometres away in the Ruataniwha water storage scheme.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council group manager resource management Iain Maxwell says that while other steps are in place to control the problem, an answer may come from the "flushing flows" from the dam project.
"This would in effect create artificial freshes or floods that mother nature may not have provided," he said, after concerns were raised by angler Dick Bradshaw, whose home overlooks the Tukituki River, near Havelock North.
The river provides some of the best fishing spots imaginable, says Mr Bradshaw, who with wife Val splits his time between the hillside home and the lifestyle of his native Canada, where he grew up with the lakes and streams of Quebec.
Although aware of algal issues in the river from time to time, he was stunned by the sight which greeted him a fortnight ago near the Patangata Bridge, where the filamentous (stringy) algae had clogged the river, and could be dragged clear in clumps resembling sodden wool.