Mantua fishing post algae treatment?

[smokepoles]

I know that this was an atypical ice season for what is often an unpredictable water anyway, but are there any general impressions of how the fish weathered the algae treatment this past summer given the gloom and doom predictions?

[obifishkenobi]

I know that this was an atypical ice season for what is often an unpredictable water anyway, but are there any general impressions of how the fish weathered the algae treatment this past summer given the gloom and doom predictions?

Sorry to say it wasn’t a prediction, there was a massive fish kill that took out the vast majority of the catchable size fish, I visited with the biologist at the Mantua hatchery and the department of environmental quality this last fall shortly after the treatment. They confirmed that the dissolved oxygen got as low as 1.5 parts per million. Trout start to die at less than 5 PMM and warm water species like Bass, Bluegill and Catfish die at less than 3 PPM. The trout are the easiest to replace just stock a bunch of catchable slimers. The other species will rebound eventually from the ones that survived by putting there nose in the springs and hanging out at the inlet, but it will take a couple years to recover, There may even be some trophy fish produced as the ones that survived will have less competition.

[smokepoles]

So, if they were prepared to accurately and extensively measure dissolved oxygen and fish kill, there must have been some inkling it was coming?

[obifishkenobi]

So, if they were prepared to accurately and extensively measure dissolved oxygen and fish kill, there must have been some inkling it was coming?

They checked the dissolved oxygen because of the fish kill, they used a meter at various locations around the lake from a boat, measuring DO is pretty standard simple thing to do. The chemical didn’t kill the fish, it just worked to good, the dying algae raised the CO2 and dropped the oxygen to lethal levels to the fish. My understanding was this was a private company demonstrating their services to the state hoping to sell them on using it in more lakes that have issues with algae blooms.

[SkunkedAgain]

So i assume the sale didn't go very well?  At least I hope the state was smart enough to value fish more than clearing algae....

I seen a couple boats fishing Mantua on Saturday morning on the drive by, kind of hoping this was a report from them... Later J