Dead fish on LSC

[Oly]

Went out for perch today, not bad once we found them. 30 in 9-12 inch range, in about an hour.

While we were out though, we couldn't believe the number of dead fish. Mostly 10 to 12 inch smallies, but I also saw many perch, 1 Muskie or Northern (couldn't tell, decomposing), and two large catfish, at least 2 feet long. On an 8 mile run back to the dock, we saw at least 15 dead. That's just on the run back, not to mention the number floating past while anchored.

Last week, I saw 2 headless sturgeon.

What's the deal?

[ice fishin' nut]

I fished the Coast Guard Station today, and only saw 1, and that was a bluegill that a guy hooked too deeply and tried to release....

[tubejig]

I read a report about a month ago that stated lake Erie
is once again experiencing "dead zones". Which is, the
oxygen content in certain areas is very low and cannot
support life. I doubt that it could happen in LSC, but I
wonder if these fish were somehow there at one time
this spring.



tubejig

[FischInMich]

I don't know. I would tend to believe that a number of these fish were hooked very deeply, and too wounded to survive. Another possibility would be tournament fisherman returning them to the water when something larger is caught, or after the fish possibly begins to fade in the well. It just seems that as the popularity of our bass fishery has grown in recent years, so have the dead ones.

[stelmon]

Right around this time I hear about this. Last year I saw 2 dead walleye and 1 catfish at the launch about this time. Maybe it's people that were out fishing all day and that's they caught and didn't feel like cleaning them when they got home so they left.

2 headless sturgeon, sounds like someone has been poaching.

[Big Frank 25]

Yep! Sturgeon head soup.:rolleyes: Maybe hit by a prop of a passing off shore boat. Sturgeon will lay on the surface to sun themselves. Did they ever find that missing Scarab with four people on board?