O2 Depletion- Closed bodies of water

[Deggert60]

Hey everyone, it looks like this winter is starting to do some damage. Had a buddy and dad go fishing in two different spots this weekend in Rochester. My buddy was fishing at Mendon and said that they had a family get together and were fishing for fun. They had 40 tipups out and not a single bit. They drilled many holes and most of them had a lot of panfish coming up out of them, either dead or very oxygen depraved. My dad said the same situation occurred at Braddocks, the bait died while down in the whole and he had a couple dead fish coming out of the hole. This is due to the lack of sunlight able to get to the weeds, through the ice and snow. Without sunlight, the plants cant perform photosynthesis and produce oxygen. Once the plant dies, it actually soaks up more oxygen, leaving even less for the fish. This is gonna cause a lot of slow/nonexistent catching of fish for any closed bodies of water. Its a sad fact from such a cold weather. Hope the closed bodies can sustain themselves to the warm weather thaws everything

[TheManInBlack]

Yeah, the thick ice really kills the ice fishing in shallow bodies of water.  This year has been especially hard on those places.

[greensider]

my best trophy gill spot  had a kill last year and this winter is worse

[deadsmelthead]

I have a pond nearby that i have access to, its roughly 15 feet deep in its deepest spot, and about 3 acres in size.. Its chucked full of gold fish, smallies pumpkin seeds and perch..  Every spring when i go to it theres 100s ontop of 100s of dead fish, this has been going on for 30+ years that i can remember, and a couple older guys than me said its been going on for as long as they can remember...

Moral of the story.. It happens, its all survival of the fittest..

[adkRoy]

Your best bet for fishing this time of year is large and/or deep bodies of water or bodies of water that froze later in the season.

[merkleyb]

I have a pond nearby that i have access to, its roughly 15 feet deep in its deepest spot, and about 3 acres in size.. Its chucked full of gold fish, smallies pumpkin seeds and perch..  Every spring when i go to it theres 100s ontop of 100s of dead fish, this has been going on for 30+ years that i can remember, and a couple older guys than me said its been going on for as long as they can remember...

Moral of the story.. It happens, its all survival of the fittest..

You mean.....survival of the fitness

[Deggert60]

Hahah it was all a trick to keep people away from my secret spot!  I'm going up north to TI for one last hoorah then the gear is going away for the winter. Unless we are fishing into april which is a possibility.

[ThisGuy]

What's depth ponds do you guys think this effects. I have a summer bass fishing spot I'm thinking of. Probably 8 acres and about 16-17 feet deep. It has a semi steady small stream going through it. Do you think it will be affected?

[SSmokinn SS]

This really worries me this coming season as big fish are more delicate then the small ones. We had winter kill last yeAr on a lot of body's of water. Small and large....and last year we had a lot of clear ice for half the season. This year it's a complete different story. No doubt a lot of body's of water will suffer . We can only tell how bad when the ice thaws.

I remember last spring, lower Champlain had a crazy alewife kill from the winter. I would pull into the bay's coming off plane and my boat would literally stir up thousands of dead alewives that were sitting on the bottom. At that point, you basically scratch your head and wonder why you are there bass fishing with artificials when the fish have a buffet of dead or dieing bait.

[mossy100]

Last spring there was literally thousands of perch floating on canandaigua but i have seen no decline in the catch rate. Hate to see it but guess its just natures way..

[big_guy_13021]

Every i walk out on the pier on skieatles lake theres dead rock bass all over.but when the spwan hits its fish on so i dontvsee where its hurting that fish in that lake.

[TheManInBlack]

Last spring there was literally thousands of perch floating on canandaigua but i have seen no decline in the catch rate. Hate to see it but guess its just natures way..

I think it makes a big difference when you have a deep lake versus a shallow pond.  With a shallow body of water, there is no where else for the fish to go.