Meeboer and Gelatt lakes possibly winterkilled

[sportsman234]

We fished these lakes over the weekend and learned afterwards they are both suspected of winterkill and to what degree they will not know until the ice comes off. I just talked with the biologist in Laramie and he confirmed it. Too bad, they had some nice fish in them. We did not get any bites and the water smelled really nasty 

[BottomDweller]

meeboer has always smelled nasty.  with as funky as that lake gets, i'm not surprised the fish might've died off

[gloomis]

It doesnt surprise me to much because whenever i have ice fished meebour i have only be able to find 3ftow at the deepest and i have fished everywhere you could think of. I guess that irriator didnt help the lake from winter kill???  That sucks meebour was a blast to fish in the summer iam going to miss it.
 

[doggbiter]

 What causes winterkill? Lack of oxygen?
Interested to know about this.

 Thanks
           Dog out

[sportsman234]

What causes winterkill? Lack of oxygen?
Interested to know about this.

 Thanks
           Dog out

Shallow lakes such as these get a heavy snow cover for extended periods sometimes which blocks sunlight to the underwater vegetation that produces oxygen in the water. The aerators are meant to keep an open spot in the water that will get bigger when the wind blows helping to produce oxygen. The thickness of the ice/lack of enough wind/ plus snow cover evidently spelled trouble unfortunately. The lakes were snow free when we were there Saturday. It doesn't look too good right now though.

[doggbiter]

sportsman234........
 Thanks for the info.