Winter Kill?

[The Paper]

I went fishing on a small lake around Lansing where I usually go to town on the bass and pull in the occasional large pike. On this day, I caught the occasional 30 inch pike, but there was not a bass to be seen. Usually on a warm summer day, the bass are jumping all over the place.

As I was leaving the lake, I talked to a person that lived on the lake and he told me he was surprised that we pulled anything out of the lake. He said that no one was having any luck this year and that a buddy of his who had an under water camera told him that the bottom was littered with dead fish. He assumed that there was a large winter kill.

The lake is pretty shallow; deepest hole is around 15 to 18 feet. The lake is about 150 acres with a mucky bottom.

Is it possible for winter kill to decimate the whole fish population? Are such kills normal on smaller lakes? I know of lakes that are smaller and the bass population is fine. Has anyone heard of anything like this before?

[bivenser]

Not knowing what lake you are talking about all we can really do is guess. My only suggestion is to call DNR and ask. If there has been a large fish by the winter, herbicides or other cause they might know.


Eric

[shooter921]

WoW, thats weird. I haven't even heard of that happening. Let us know when you find something out.

80

[$Big Pimpin$]

Well I live on a small private lake and it is loaded with bass I dont really have a count but its over 300, and each spring I see between 2-8 dead bass, my lake gets to be about 25-30 feet but in the winter we were catching bass on tip ups in 8 feet of water so its probably herbicides or could be some kind of disease.