FISH KILL ON THE JAMES

[fishinwrench]

Maybe fish finders need oxygen detection to find where fish are hiding

Seriously!    Why are y'all not carrying O2 and pH meters with 50' probes ?

The thought that you could be wasting time FISHING in substandard water should drive you crazy.

[Guest]

 

deleted

 

[fishinwrench]

Nope, knowing where the thermocline is/or isn't has never made or broke a day for me.   Sometimes I notice it on the graph (always around 22-26' here) but I seldom if ever have to fish that deep to catch decent fish on the lakes I fish.   I've fished TR plenty in the past and have always managed to do well enough and never fished any deeper than 15-18'.

[Fishin Hodge]

I will say I have seen it in high water events multiple times now, fish dying that is.  I actually believe the biologist are onto something as well with the low O2 levels as it is effecting certain species of fish that seem to be more prone to low O2 levels.  I mean I have eaten the dying fish before and I am a little off but I do not believe them to be toxic in any way. 

 

Again specific species are dying.  I can tell you the thermocline is much shallower than it would normally be as well.  September is probably the #1 month to pay attention to the thermocline in my opinion, but I'm no Pete Wenners.

[fishinwrench]

September is probably the #1 month to pay attention to the thermocline in my opinion.

 

You mean on Table rock, or on all lakes ?

And by "paying attention" do you mean by only fishing that depth range?

 

[bfishn]

Hmmm. Is now a good time to admit I have a pro grade YSI portable DO/TEMP meter with a 50' probe?

I bought it for fish farm duty, but drug it to the lake a lot over a the years. Much like a camera, it teaches you to read the water column with your graph better. Thermal and oxygen shears appear as noise shears on the screen... say the top 30 feet are fuzzy, but everything below is clear as a bell. What you're seeing is mostly living stuff. Where that life appears to end is usually a shear, sometimes both of temp & O2, sometimes just one of them.

I found that information quite helpful. In a lake that often has fish to 50', knowing there's nothing alive below 30' removes a lot of water to eliminate.

[fishinwrench]

Well I always kinda figured that the range where you see alot of returns (life) on the graph kinda indicated that was the area of preferred water quality.  But NOW biologists are saying stuff that indicates the fish are too clueless to seek out prime water conditions and they are just found where they are because that is where they are.... and they don't know which way to go in order to find better quality water.     

You guys saying that fish seek out the thermocline, but yet don't seek out water with the desired oxygen content are really confusing me.   Do water conditions move fish OR NOT?  Make up your mind.  

[bfishn]

I'd say it's more that there is nowhere to go more than they can't figure where to go. Take walleye, which have been sighted floating in numbers. The surface water's too warm.Tpreferred temp water has lost DO. Even if they "knew" there were better conditions only 4 miles away, they couldn't get there without croakin'.

There's a Catch 22 with DO. The warmer the water, the higher the metabolism of a cold-blooded fish, the greater the O2 demand. Unfortunately, the warmer the water, the less oxygen it will carry;

Most fish stress (some die) at 5ppm O2. At 77 degrees, water will only hold  ~8.4ppm. Throw in some BOD from decaying matter and things can go south in hours.

Having hauled live trout and watching the O2 meter all the way, you can eat up the miles as long as you maintain 6-7ppm. Hit 4 for 4-5 minutes, and you lost the load.

[fishinwrench]

I bet if you tested the O2 in an area of the lake where you see dead fish you'll find it to be within the acceptable range.  

[gitnby]

I guess unless we get a bonafide autopsy on these fish, we will never know?

As for me, I'm going with the "second gunman on the grassy knoll" theory.