I took this picture this afternoon when I was out in the canoe on my pond. I've never had chara take off like this in winter before. Our weather has been unusually mild (it's gotten colder in the past week). Perhaps that helped stimulate the growth.
Anyone else having winter chara problems? How do you control chara in winter?
Should I attempt control now or wait until spring?
Surface temperatures of the pond have ranged up and down from about 40 to 52 over the past two weeks.

Is that filimentous on top of the Chara?

Cecil --

There is a small amount of filamentous mixed in, but that is actually the chara that has emerged (since December) and sort of "crowned out." Once it hits the surface it appears to bleach out very rapidly.

This view above is about the very worst chara patch in the pond, with access pretty much limited to treatment by boat.

I removed a fair amount yesterday with a lake rake and weed cutter, but that stuff really weighs a ton. I had to quit after about an hour. That's why I was hoping there might be some magic "silver bullet" for chara control in winter.

Today we're having snow and ice -- maybe that will slow it a bit. Anyway, my aging and aching shoulders are happy about the cold weather -- I need the rest!
-- Mike Smith, Lexington, VA

p.s. The brookies I stocked are hanging on, despite two slugs of brown water from storms ... and a very persistent great blue heron. You can see on the right in the picture some of the twine I've strung to limit the heron's flight path and landing areas.

just add some copper sulfate and it should solve the problem

Copper sulfate will tend to kill the algae but not do much to killing the Chara esp in winter.