Fish Kill?

[TwainGang]

Re-posted from Conservation Agent page...

I fished Nodaway County Lake north of Maryville on Saturday and saw about 50 bluegill, a bass, a crappie and a channel cat floating dead on the water throughout the day. The fishing was still decent and it looks like a healthy lake, but I wonder if this was a natural type kill or perhaps a run-off caused kill. Just wondering and to give an alert in a conservation or fisheries person wanted to check it out. Some of the bluegill has a reddish rash on them- but I didn't know if that was the cause of death or a post-mortem artifact. Any ideas?

[MOfishmgr]

Probably post-spawning stress on the bluegill. The other dead fish could have been from hooking mortality. Quite frankly, in our world, unless there are a hundred or more dead fish it really isn't a fish kill. Fish reproduce by the millions so they can die by the millions. On average 20% of the fish die each year due to natural mortality and angling. This is why fish lay so many eggs. Some fish will lay close to a million eggs to reproduce 2 adults. The bluegill have just finished their first spawning push so a few mortalities are not unexpected. Spawning is hard.

[sevenfiftynine]

He He.....He just said Spawning was hard.....you hear that Keeferfish????

[keeferfish]

[TwainGang]

Spawning stress did cross my mind- it was that time of year for blue-gill-I just don't remember seeing that many floaters, and I was the only one on the lake for the first part of the day. Most of the bluegill were all the same size- seem somewhat stunted, which isn't uncommon. Thanks for the follow-up!