Dissolved Oxygen

[trout_bum]

I fish upper Lake Taneycomo quite frequently. Just this past weekend, I witnessed something quite disturbing. They had been running one unit for two or three hours in the afternoon and I was fishing around the island across from outlet two. They turned the water off around 5:00pm, and I decided to call it a day around 7:00pm. I walked around the back side of island and saw dead trout everywhere in the slack water. There had to have been 20 to 30 trout belly up along the bottom of the channel. It appeared that most fish were in the 12" to 15" range with a few that were pushing 20". I can only assume that the low dissolved oxygen is to blame. Is there anything being done to remedy this problem?

[Phil Lilley]

You should call MDC. Call the home office in Springfield at 417-895-6880. Ask for someone in fisheries and tell them exactly what you saw. Don't exaggerate the numbers... not saying you are at all, they just need to know exactly what happened.

I wouldn't think the DO levels would be low enough to kill anything right now. The levels don't drop till later in September. But that's where the levels would be the lowest - away from the hatchery outlets. They could have died earlier when the water dropped and they could have been trapped in a pool. Unfortunate regardless.

[Greg]

I wonder if they could have been bows that were recently caught and released that couldn't quite handle that stress along with the low DO?

Greg

[Phil Lilley]

I got a call into MDC to see what the levels are right now. I doubt if they're that bad, this early.

[DoveTail]

Everyone with cell phones now or tiny cameras...take a pic of that so MDC can see it.

[Phil Lilley]

http://www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil/WCDS/plots/Web/trdo.htm

Here's what Shane sent me (fisheries biologist for Taney).

He said DO isn't low enough to stress out fish, as you can tell from the chart. He said the dead fish were probably trapped in low water and died from heat or depleted O2.

He said to call his office at 417-334-4859- it's right up by the hatchery.

[Phil Lilley]

This chart is also located with the water level charts at the link above all forums.

http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17240

[perchjerker]

Thanks for the info Phil. Once again you keep us up to date as to what is happenig in Trout Shang-ri-la. Hope to see or stay with you when we come down on the 26th -29th.