Melvern Fish Kill?

[eatmorfish]

A friend says within the last couple of weeks (early Jan. 2013 timeframe) a relative spotted a large number of floating crappie in the Marina Cove Area. He said the marina folks indicated there is serious concern with this event.

Many anglers have spent many fruitless hours since last summer, especially at Melvern, but on other lakes as well. Many of us have blamed the drought/low, stagnant water. It stands to reason, whether it is due to a manmade or natural "pollutant/condition" that the lakes have much less water thereby raising the ppm's appreciably. Lack of fish obviously could be a root cause for poor angling results.

Can you shed any light on this?

If true;
how has it affected the crapppie population and other species for that matter?
how will it affect next years fishery and beyond?
What caused this and is it a "cyclical expectation" at most reservoirs?

Thank you
djs

[olesilverside]

Hate to hear that, knock on wood we haven't had any problem with it here on Truman but we are only down about a 1 1/2' but been there for almost 2 years.....

[Blackdog40]

My buddy called and talked to Buck who works there today at about 1330, Buck did not report any fish kill, I was at the Marina yesterday no fish kill, someone might be seeing carcasses from fish cleaned, just a thought.

[eatmorfish]

I heard this second hand from my brother. His source is a very good fisherman whose Dad lives near the lake. Supposedly both of them observed the floating, dead fish and they were not carcasses of fish that had been cleaned. I will ask a few more questions, mainly related to when they saw this, then report back again.

Let's hope it is not a fish kill. It's been tough sledding this last fall.

Thanks

[springhillwantabe]

don't remember how deep the water is at marina but have seen caught in 25-30-35 feet of water winter and summer bring em up fast they get the bends 4 or 5 people rippin them up can kill a bunch of them ????

[Crappie Chatt]

Now dis is a 'fish kill'!!! This was in S. C. Got the pic off MSN<*)}}}><

[zeepo]

I saw the smae thing on Melvern in early spring, three boats fishing piles and after they left I ran the boat over to mark them and there was about 2 dozen dead crappie floating on the surface. The brush was in 25 ft of water but I thought maybe they were using minnows and the crappie were hooked pretty deep.

Zeepo

[Blackdog40]

I will call the Marina in morning and ask. Of course anybody can do that, they are nice folks and will answer truthfully

[Craig Johnson]

I checked yesterday with Richard Sanders, KDWPT District Fisheries Biologist for Melvern Reservoir, and he was not aware of crappie die off. Richard told me that he called the marina yesterday morning and spoke to them about it and the person he spoke with didn't know of any large scale die off either.

Keep the reports coming if there is indeed something going on.

[eatmorfish]

I followed up with my brother this morning regarding this report. He called and conversed with a mutual friend of ours and avid/excellent fisher, Steve. Steve told him he was down there about a month ago or so at the Melvern Marina cove and observed "hundreds of crappie" floating, not carcasses, not under-length floating-stunned fish. He did not report any other species of floating fish.

The next day upon his return to the scene, there was no evidence of any floating fish.

Steve is one of the best fishers we know who has vast experince with crappie and all species for that matter, so I consider his report very credible.

Quite honestly, a report of thousands of floating fish is of much greater concern, so in this case hopefully it's much ado about nothing.
None the less, if fishers spot anything in this regard that is uncommon, I would deem it prudent to report it.

Now, let's hope the later winter/spring crappie angling will calm our concerns. Happy thumps to all!