I was fishing at Dale last week and the dead fish I seen were walleye. The water temp was 93 and I think the stress was what killed them.
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I talked with my cousin this morning and he was telling me of a friend of his that took a 3 day fishing trip at Dale Hollow about 3 weeks ago and said there were dead Smallmouth fish floating all over the lake. My cousin thought he said he stayed at the Hendricks Creek dock but was not for sure. Anyone else know or hear anything about the dead fish? He also had a bad fishing report. Stayed three days and just got a few hits, no fish.
I was fishing at Dale last week and the dead fish I seen were walleye. The water temp was 93 and I think the stress was what killed them.
I heard wind of a Walleye kill which is typical for these very hot summers with little rain. Walleye don't like our water temps, low 90's are not the Eye's friend. Smalljaws don't like it either but will usually go as deep as the O2 levels will alow and make it fine.
There is an article on BASSMASTER by Steven Headrick that talks about fish kills there.
Why is it lakes like Cumberland and Laurel don`t have problems like this? Also the report was that there looked to be 4 and 5 pound smallmouth floating. My cousin and I fished about a week ago at Dale and he caught a couple of small ones and one I know for sure look to be deformed. We thought it might have been something to do with the temp of the lake but who knows. One thing we have noticed, a few trips down toward the dam is that we usually get the smell of diesel fuel and have seen it on the lake. Maybe that could have something to do with the dead fish?
This year turned over one of my ponds I fish. It killed just about all the mature fish in it, quite a few 4 and 5lber's. It will take years to get back where it was, it just makes you sick.
Our summers around here are getting brutal. I don't ever remember a year like this, where it was just miserably hot almost every single day with insane heat. The ponds got in the mid and some spiked in the upper 90's, are you kidding me, fish can't take that coupled with low O2 levels...
Cumberland has had massive fish kills the last two years. Walleyes and Stripers died by the hundreds. This year hasn't been nearly as bad, but a few floaters were noted. Two years ago they had ahuge fish kill down there, that's why the lake striper size has been temp lowered to 22inches. Lots and lots of mature fish died.Why is it lakes like Cumberland and Laurel don`t have problems like this? Also the report was that there looked to be 4 and 5 pound smallmouth floating. My cousin and I fished about a week ago at Dale and he caught a couple of small ones and one I know for sure look to be deformed. We thought it might have been something to do with the temp of the lake but who knows. One thing we have noticed, a few trips down toward the dam is that we usually get the smell of diesel fuel and have seen it on the lake. Maybe that could have something to do with the dead fish?
Looks to me like the fish need some kind of a break to reproduce.
I haven't been keeping up with the fishing boards much, but I headed over to the smalljaw site when I saw this thread and it is definitely a smallmouth kill. TWRA is on it and a post from a week or so ago had 158 dead smallies at that time.
it's not just the lakes, I saw on the news last week where the fish were dying by the thousands on the Mississippi river. it showed them on the river bank and they were piled up every where.
I love to fish the Hollow, I really hate to hear this. Hopefully they will find an answer to what killed that many Sallies..
They do know the answer HOT WATER. LOW 02 levels. But can't be helped mother nature doing her balancing act. Dale has such a strick limit on it that the smallmouth population has exploded. TOO many fish for the amount of 02 and duh..... Wonder when they are going to admit that their plan for a instant new world record from dale didn't work. The slot limit helped the amount of 4 -6 lb fish but it also has added more fish taking from the amount of forage and using o2.