is this going to hurt?

[CrappieKillerJigs]

i went out to the local lake today to find everything froze of but one lil patch that had some water running and i started to fish i looked down because there was ice pushed up on the bank and i got to looking and in one lil spot i counted about 40-50 lil crappie about 3in long dead...i guess they got pushed and washed up by the ice...the lake is mostly 4-5ft deep and if i counted that many in a 6x6 area then i know there has to be a ton more...is this going to hurt the crappie in the lake i was asking myself the rest of the day....has anyone else ever seen this?

[CrappiePappy]

size of lake/amount of water
overall numbers of fish (total biomass of the Crappie)
whether it was an isolated incident, or not
whether or not this lake experiences freezing over, as a normal occurrence

You probably won't know, or experience any difference, for a few more years. But, after that, it may be VERY obvious ... especially if it was a heavy fish kill, and you only saw a small percentage of the damage. Fish Kills, like interrupted spawns, are one reason why fish are cyclic in numbers & size.

... cp

[drfishjd]

I only have limited experience with fish kills, but I've had one in my own small pond and made an inquiry. Here's what I found out. If there is alot of vegetation in the pond, if it starts dying off, the decomposing weeds use up all the oxygen, killing the fish. The big fish, which need more oxygen than the small fish, die off first. If you're seeing alot of small fish, and if the kill occurred from dropping oxygen levels, it could be a major fish kill. The vegetation can die from a lack of sunlight - could be from snow on the ice for several days in a row. It can also occur from several overcast days occurring at a time when the water, due to its temperature, won't hold as much oxygen. I really don't remember whether warm water or cold water holds less oxygen, but I'm thinking that my fish kill occurred from several overcast summer days. Perhaps others on the forum can help. Good luck.