Fish-Hawk.Net

So, Bobber and I couldn't resist the 23degree temperature today (about 74 for our American friends) and we decided to hit an old favourite spot on the Mississippi River, near Appleton for some crappie and perch. A few short weeks ago the launch was still frozen but you could see the rest of the river was wide open.

Today when we got to the shoreline at the launch there were a lot of dead fish - 26 to be exact, within a range of about 50 feet. Most of these were decent size bass (2-3 lb) and the odd sunfsh. They had obviously been dead for a while. Most of the bass were smallmouth but there were some largemouth in the mix as well. Neither of us had seen that before and it was disturbing. Any comments on this? Was it an abnormal winter with many fish trapped in the ice or is something else going on?

Weeder, I don't know much about rivers vs. lakes with regard to (winter) ice kills. But there was a similar post last week about a high fish mortality on the Rideau and speculation was leaning towards the severe cold temp's this winter. That would make sense, seeing as the fish looked as though they were dead for a while.....?

W.

According to the MNR this not uncommon because of the winter we had.
In the Sun today there was mention of the same thing on the Rideau. They are asking people to report any area that this happening in.

hey fellas and ladies,
I have also wintnessed the same kind of thing down near kempville along river road just past the north grenville sign. There were countless dead fish but more disturbing was the fact that there werre even more fish not dead but dying. The ones not dead but close to death had an almost fungas like stuff growing on them. I don't know very much about this sort of thing but I found it to be weird and disturbing. Anyone ever seen dying fish with stuff growing on them? Like eating them away alive?

Orrsey, that is definitely disturbing. I suppose it could be residual results of a severe winter; however, I think you should report what you saw. It sounds pretty nasty.

W.

We see this here in the inner bay of long point occasionally. Apparently it's due to a quick water temp change. This quick temp change can be brought on when a cold win blows colder water into a shallow warm bay.

Peter

I started that previous post about the same thing on the Rideau. I have been keeping an eye out for follow up on the issue. The paper has had 2 recent articles about it being the result of winter kill i.e. above average time for ice cover and above average thickness of ice leads to lower oxygen levels in the water and the fish die off. Part of nature. At least that is the supposed story on the Rideau.

Mick

Last spring .......mayish there were hundreds of dead fish in some the bays along the ottawa river.Mainly bass one pound range

iv seen this happend this spring @ bay noire the ice had just unfroze and seriously hundrend and hundrends of bait fish (perch, crappie , 1-2 pound bass) all dead floating with the current under an overpass ... i took pictures cause it was something to worry about ... mentioned it to the s.e.p.a.q ... they replied that they didint know what was going on but that the water was tested and the result were : water is healthy!

heres the picture ... pretty nasty!!!

Hey Guys: Those are all good ideas for the die off but the real reason was that oil spill that happened there resently ( Appleton )... Our illustious mayor had an old oil tank on a commercial property of his and when they were doing some work it ruptured and drained into the river at the hydro station area...We had a post a little while ago about it. Anyway a lot of oil made it into this section of the river and because it was at a bend there was not much current to take it away.

Good Point AF..but Weeder's original post is from 2004...

Why anyone would re-open a 3 and a half year old post..well is odd..

am i the only one who would like to see not just the water being tested for contaminates but also the dead fish??? and other fish still living in the area... i would like to know whats going on....

Thanks R.J. did not noticed the time line of this

Jasonb wrote:am i the only one who would like to see not just the water being tested for contaminates but also the dead fish??? and other fish still living in the area... i would like to know whats going on....

It's winter kill....happens every year...

Our MNR doesn't have time to come and check on a dozen dead fish...