UPDATE: UL White Bass Dieoff

[TubeDude]

It will be interesting to see what Chris says about lake wide. I figured it had to be, considering what I saw and heard, but the wind does move the floaters around. I'm getting a bit worried though. Mike said he hasn't caught an incidental WB in his eye hunting trips since before the floaters showed up. If there was a really large die off, would most of the fish float or would most of them just sit on the bottom? The day I saw all the dead ones on the top, MM75 actually snagged a dead one on a circle hook that was dragging right on the bottom.

Time will tell I guess.

As a general rule, most dead critters...animal, bird or fish...will float after dying.  Decomp produces internal gasses that float the deceased.  But not always.  And the colder the water the slower the decomp process and in some cases it is never enough to float the body. 

In the case of the white bass, they also have air bladders so it would not take much to float them to the top.  I doubt the bottom is littered with white bass carcasses.  More likely that most of them float up and become pelican chow. 

I am beginning to believe it might be a lakewide disaster.  Anybody notice any Russian Tanks along the banks of the lake recently?  But if history tells us anything not all the fish will die and there will be enough left to spawn and restock the lake.  Whities are prolific.  Just gonna be some poorer fishing for all species until they restart things.