Been hearing about fish kills/die offs on Lake Cumberland and Wolf Creek dam Tail waters due to low oxygen. Can anyone confirm?
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Been hearing about fish kills/die offs on Lake Cumberland and Wolf Creek dam Tail waters due to low oxygen. Can anyone confirm?
Someone was talking about some reports of cat fish dead on here the other day in a striper thread. I have been out every weekend at least one day since July and haven't seen the first dead fish. Most of my time is spent in White Oak or Pitman or up the river in Buck Creek.
We fished the Cumberland river just below the dam this past Sunday in the rain and there were several nice sized trout and one walleye that went about 20 inches or so dead floating. We made 4 passes floating from the Dam to just past Ray Mann road. Fishing was terrible. Only caught 4 fish total.
One thing I noticed is that they have switched the sluice gate they had been using. The one that's open now is right up against the generator house, and it appears to be the sluice with the restricter plate on it because it doesn't seem to be putting out near the water the sluice on the south side of the dam was that they had been using since mid August. The water temp was 65 degrees as well. Very warm for the river. Two weeks ago with the other sluice running it was 58. Just my observations.
[url]http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Hatchery-officials-explain-why-thousands-of-fish-died-in-Russell-County-449646643.html[/url]
oct 5 had a lot of trout in the hatchery die, hope link works
There was some die off. Stripers and Walleye came through the dam gates. I saw three walleye floating in the lake this past weekend. Many fish moved up but some have stayed down. Water feels better deeper but there isn't much oxygen. Water is warmer above 45 ft but has good levels. I took a temp reading at 50 ft last weekend and it was 71 at Grider Hill. Stripers can do OK in that range but it would be great if the surface temp could get down to 70 sooner than later.
Guys on the lairs bench tell me this happens every year, just varies in severity?
It's entirely possible that this is happens almost every year to some degree. I guess it wasn't really brought to prime focus until the large die offs. The fish have been very strong when you can get them to bite the last few weeks. I had one almost rip a rod off the boat this past weekend and all the fish I caught had been feeding well. I think the fish that participated in the die off this year were just too stubborn to move to water they could breath in. Walleye are known for that.
The bigger schools are starting to form and they are covering 30-40 ft deep of water so I am not as worried as I was a few weeks ago.
And haven't seen any dead fish.
[QUOTE=Duayne;565004]The bigger schools are starting to form and they are covering 30-40 ft deep of water so I am not as worried as I was a few weeks ago.[/QUOTE]
Assuming the alewives are moving up with the fish? I'd like to pull boards one day this weekend but don't like waking up early only to find I can't catch any bait.
Do NOT make that assumption. LOL Most of the large bait has been staying down deep and strictly on the main lake. I know of only one light at Grider Hill that got bait last weekend. I didn't even try. I trolled down riggers\slide divers Saturday and someone brought me bait back from Jamestown marina on Sunday. The bait most fish are feeding on up high is the small stuff hatched this year and threadfins. Gizzards also do not mind the warmer water up high. My 5-7" Alewives only lasted 10-15 minutes on the hook fishing 20-50 ft Sunday so that high water isn't ready for them yet.
I didn't cast for them but i saw Gizzards everywhere back by 76 falls on Sunday afternoon. Gizzards would be a fantastic way to go if you don't mind the trouble of finding\casting for them and cleaning up after them.
Again, this was Grider Hill. Other marinas will have different situations. I expect Grider to start holding bait soon again but it will be deep until that surface water cools down or maybe even after the turnover.