My family and I went for a walk around Mantua today along the back side. there was a really bad smell of Dead fish. All along the bank were dead gills that had washed up into the trees. The wierd thing was that it was only larger gills that we saw. 5" to 8" mostly. We saw tons of baby ones swiming and chasing food. They seemed just fine. Any one know why all those gills were dead. I went fishing last week there and saw a few floaters but this time there really had to be hundreds from the North East Bathroom/ parking lot area to the knoll.
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DWR shocked the lake. They picked up all the bass and trout but left the blue gill.
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Shocking does not kill the fish, so something else killed em !! Check with Northern Division DWR, they may have an idea !
I observed the same. Couldn't find anything on the DWR site. Maybe I need a phone call. I could see if they shocked, maybe the birds picked off the small ones, but definitely the majority were bigguns. We saw a few still swimming, but not for much longer. Some seemed to have rotting sides, or fungus on mouth, dorsal.
So I still wonder what it's all about.
We did find some fish on beds, but not that many - think we're a couple weeks late for the real action. Definitely a stinking shame to see all those dead fish. I'd have much better ideas how to utilize that resource. (pix coming)
There was a post spawn infection affecting some of the fish, yes they did shock the lake however the infection is what killed the fish....this is straight from DWR, why they would shock the lake when the absolute best fishing started i am still trying to figure out...totally stupid if you ask me..they could have done the a month ago!
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I called the DWR and they told me a bunch of males died due to a combination of spawning stress and a rapid rise in the lake temp. They said they definitelyl DID NOT shock the lake chemically or electrically.
Incidentally, I went up there on Tuesday and had a lot of fun catching some nice 'gills on a fly and a bubble.
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It is whats known as "spring kill" similar to winter or summer kill. When water temperature abruptly rises during spawning the stress is too much for some fish, particularly older ones, to handle. There's still PLENTY of bluegill in the lake
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