Lake Puckaway Fish Kill.... Unbelievable.

[TIBS]

Anyone who fishes in southeast Wisconsin knows Lake Puckaway, but what's happened here last weekend is just sickening.  Thousands of dead fish are washed up on the south shore, as well as sitting on the bottom of the lake.

No solid answers as to why yet, but the DNR is working on it.  The local rumor mill is pointing their fingers at the commercial carp fisherman, for possibly not attending to their nets in a timely manner.  If this is the case, I hope they get everything coming to them in the legal system, fines, jail, whatever.  News stations around the southeast part of the state will probably have a little segment about it tonight if you would like to tune in.  I've attached some pictures taken by the DNR of the horrible mess.  I work with a guy who lives on this lake, and he's pretty rattled by it, understandably.

[FishingNewEngland]

Wow, I've never seen a fish kill like that. Any idea on how many? What species?

[gaudetskie]

That's CRAZY!!! How big is the lake??  If this come's back to someone being negligent I hope they get strung up!!!

[TIBS]

Wow, I've never seen a fish kill like that. Any idea on how many? What species?

Thousands, not a good solid number, but it's a lot.  Mostly walleye (mostly nice big breeders), sheepshead, and carp from what I can see in the pictures, but I understand that there's some pike and crappies as well.  Not good.......

Puckaway is about 5400 acres, but really shallow, 5'-6' for most of the lake.  It's part of the Fox River System, a walleye factory waterway here in southern Wisconsin, it hurts to see all those dead walleyes......

[MEMAGGIENCOMET]

Holy crap I have not even heard about this yet and I live like 15 miles from there and fish it a few times a year.  In the pictures looks like a lot of nice sized eyes.  That is just not right.  I hope they find out what happened fast.

[C P]

Oh no. Thats terrible. They better get whats coming to them. 

[Walleye64]

this lake is 25 min. away from me

[walleye tattoo]

We just moved our trailers to Rivers end on Puckaway a month ago may be should have stayed on Petenwell time will tell come ice season.

[TIBS]

We just moved our trailers to Rivers end on Puckaway a month ago may be should have stayed on Petenwell time will tell come ice season.

Well, first the shad were back, now this?  Fishing this lake will be tough after this.

[Melbs7]

it just makes a guy really mad to see that. we had that in a lake around here (on a MUCH MUCH smaller scle). The lake was about 50 acres.... it was a complete kill off due to manure run-off. They ended up keeping the lake drained for a couple years.

[Tainterslayer]

Wow that is just sad!! As long as it's not something chemical though.. It will take a little time but the lake will come back. It could come back even better, just like forests after a wildfire?? It just sucks to see something like this happen though

[Bellybuster]

sounds like chemical to me, natural dies tend to target 1 species, not all of'em.

[trapster]

I live about 25 miles from there.  I don't fish the lake but that kill in unbelievable.

[TIBS]

sounds like chemical to me, natural dies tend to target 1 species, not all of'em.

The most likely cause of this is commercial carp fisherman being neglegent in checking their nets.

[minnowguy]

How do the nets work that they would kill that many fish?

[WISKY FISHER]

thats just not right. has anyone heard what the dnr has said about this yet?

[TIBS]

thats just not right. has anyone heard what the dnr has said about this yet?

No official word yet, supposed to be an informational meeting next week sometime maybe we'll get some answers there.

[keng52]

  Do you, by chance, know the name of a local newspaper in that vicinity? I would like to check up on this story later.

[TIBS]

  Do you, by chance, know the name of a local newspaper in that vicinity? I would like to check up on this story later.

The Daily Citizen of Beaver Dam is the only one near the area that I know of that was covering the story.  Check em out here:
http://www.wiscnews.com/bdc/

[perchpunk22]

This is just plain terrible to look at.  All those fish just dead because of negligence.  I have never seen such a thing, never though I would and I hope to never see it again.

[Wiener]

Just got this info from the DNR website.

Lake Puckaway fish kill affects netted, penned game fish and rough fish

News Release Published: December 4, 2009 by the Central Office

Contact(s): Ron Bruch, DNR Fisheries Team Supervisor, (920) 424-3059
Contractor hired to remove rough fish from lake is faulted
Public meeting scheduled for December 16

MONTELLO - “Final estimates of the number of dead fish as the result of a preventable fish kill in Lake Puckaway in Green Lake County are expected to be completed in several days,” says Ron Bruch, DNR Fisheries Team Leader in Oshkosh.

The fish kill was reported by a Puckaway lakeshore resident who had concerns about the way the rough fish removal contract was being carried out by a carp removal contractor who is permitted to harvest rough fish, primarily carp, from the lake. There has been a contracted removal of rough fish on this lake for several decades without any similar incident. This is the first year with this particular contractor and the contract with him has been terminated.

The north and south shores of the lake where most of the fish were killed are adjacent to the areas where the contractor had set up his net pens. The contractor’s failure to remove the game fish as required from these nets was the primary cause of the fish kill. Thirty per-cent of the fish killed were game fish. Various species of rough fish made up the remaining 70%.

Fresh dead walleye and drum have been collected and sent to the lab in Madison for necropsy and disease testing. “The final tallies of the numbers of walleye that we picked up or were seen dead on shore may be less than we originally thought,” said Bruch, “however the size of the walleyes was impressive -- with many fish over 5 pounds.”

DNR fisheries biologists are collecting the facts about the kill, doing dead fish counts, collecting biological information on the walleyes, and developing estimates of the size of the kill. DNR law enforcement officers are conducting a thorough investigation, have terminated the rough fish contract, and will hold discussions with the Green Lake District Attorney to determine what legal action may be taken.

Fisheries staff are working closely with the district to sort through the information and put together a plan of action to move forward with the management of the fishery. “Several individuals asked whether the DNR was going to stock the lake to re-build the walleye population,” said Bruch who explained that stocking the lake will not replace the large walleyes that were killed. He reports that the walleyes ranged from 18 to 28 inches and were probably 6 to 18 years in age.

Biologists will alter their lake assessment schedule to conduct a fisheries survey on Lake Puckaway after ice is out in the spring of 2010. Until the fish biologists do their assessment of the lake they won’t have an accurate picture of what kind of impact the kill actually had on the fish community. DNR and the lake associations will move forward from that point.

Prior to this fish kill, the DNR had planned to work with the lake district to prepare their walleye wagon to spawn and raise walleye fry for stocking in spring 2010. Biologists reaffirmed their commitment to work with them to make sure they get the eggs from the lake, that the walleye wagon is functioning properly, and that the fry stocked are marked for future assessment.

DNR has scheduled a public meeting to review and discuss the information about the kill and plans for the future. Members of surrounding communities, area businesses, and lakeshore residents are pleased that DNR is moving ahead to actively involve the public. The public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on December 16 at the UW Extension facility, 480 Underwood Avenue in Montello.

The department will advertise this meeting in local newspapers in the Lake Puckaway area and the Lake Puckaway District and Association will get the meeting announcement posted on the Lake District/Association web site.

DNR biologists are confident they will have good data on this fish kill and that they have a solid strategy outlined to move forward.



The contract has been terminated, but I think the contractor should be cut up and fed to the few fish that remain.


It proves once again,  you can't fix stupid.


Wiener

[mike78]

ist sad some quality fish lost used to be a great place to fish and duck hunt

[TIBS]

ist sad some quality fish lost used to be a great place to fish and duck hunt

Still is a great place to fish and hunt, the losses aren't gonna break the lake, it's just heartbreaking to see so many good breeding size walleyes floating up on shore like that.  I'm sure there's more out there, it is part of the fox river after all.  It'll come back strong, thanks to the guys running the walleye wagon.

[Bushman1]

 There were close to 2000 dead walleyes estamated by the DNR and there is no way to exactly count them with the lake freezing up so fast again this year. 

[TIBS]

There were close to 2000 dead walleyes estamated by the DNR and there is no way to exactly count them with the lake freezing up so fast again this year. 

The same bushman that's on Lake-Link?  Welcome to the site!  Where have you been guiding since the puckaway fiasco?  I would imagine buisness is kinda slow after this mess.