Anyone notice a winter fishkill in small ponds?

My friends have a two acre pond in the Louisville area, at it's deepest point it's almost 15 foot deep. I am practically the only person that ever fishes it. The past two Summers it has been overgrown with moss and I haven't fished it. It has always been a GREAT bluegill pond and decent for bass,no catfish. Last time I fished it was last Spring and I caught a ton of ten inch bass and thought they needed to be thinned out. I can usually catch some decent three to five pound bass if I really work at it.

I put ten grass carp in it in November. The moss returned this year and now they have had Fish and Wildlife come out to give them advise on killing the weeds and managing the pond. F&W went ahead and did a electo-shocking for them too. They didn't shock up ANY fish and they believe it had a fish kill over the Winter. F&W could only shock the center of the pond because of the moss. I think that is why they couldn't find any fish and any fish that got shocked would be under the weeds.

F&W said that many local ponds had fish kills over the Winter when they were covered with ice for several weeks and also had snow on top of the ice blocking out any sunlight.
The dead fish would have stayed on the bottom and decomposed without any signs or smell. I just find it hard to believe everything was killed.

F&W recommends a total restocking with fingerling bass,gills,cats and more grass carp at their expense. I asked them to hold off restocking until I can get the time to come out and fish it and prove the fish are still there.

Has anyone noticed a dramatic change in smaller ponds in the area? I have only fished Barkley and Ky Lake so far this year so I don't know.

Fish kills of this nature are a pretty common phenomenon. What happens is, when the snow on top of the ice blocks out the sunlight for an extended period, the plants in the pond begin to die off, decreasing the oxygen content, and releasing compounds into the water that are extremely toxic to fish. Once enough fish have died off, the water is poisoned even further, killing off all the rest. Trust me, if this is what happened, there are NO fish alive in that pond, and if KDFWR says that's what happened, I don't understand why you think you know better than they do. Unless you want this pond to be a swimming hole and nothing else, you need to quit standing in the way, and let them fix the problem.

It happens especially in ponds with a ton of grass or moss in it. Its probably for the best since you said the bass were stunted and small anyway. Once bass are small for a long time the get stunted and wont grow much even if they are moved. I have put bass from stunted ponds in small ponds that didnt have any fish in them and the stunted ones didn't grow. I know it ***** short term but it was a good thing long term.

[QUOTE=RoadToad;459907]Fish kills of this nature are a pretty common phenomenon. What happens is, when the snow on top of the ice blocks out the sunlight for an extended period, the plants in the pond begin to die off, decreasing the oxygen content, and releasing compounds into the water that are extremely toxic to fish. Once enough fish have died off, the water is poisoned even further, killing off all the rest. Trust me, if this is what happened, there are NO fish alive in that pond, and if KDFWR says that's what happened, I don't understand why you think you know better than they do. Unless you want this pond to be a swimming hole and nothing else, you need to quit standing in the way, and let them fix the problem.[/QUOTE]

Also look up phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are a vital food source to your fry, small baitfish, etc. Phytoplankton are photosynthesizing microscopic organisms that inhabit the upper sunlit layer of almost all oceans and bodies of fresh water and are the foundation of the food chain. It's what gives lakes and ponds the green color that they have. In winter, ponds and lake look much clearer due to such a smaller presence due to shorter periods of sun (shorter days) and when snow and ice prevents them from getting enough sunlight to carry on photosynthesis. Extremely low numbers of phytoplankton means your smaller fish die off, which has an effect all the way up the food chain to your larger fish.

[QUOTE=RayP;459873]It has always been a GREAT bluegill pond and decent for bass,no catfish. Last time I fished it was last Spring and I caught a ton of ten inch bass and thought they needed to be thinned out. I can usually catch some decent three to five pound bass if I really work at it.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like more fish than the food source could sustain. When you've got that going on, it doesn't take much to kill off an already starving fish.