Dead Rainbows

[patfish]

fishinwrench posted this in the Niangua forum yesterday.....

It really kicked Bennett Spring in the butt. Dead Rainbows literally covered the ground downstream of the hatchery yesterday.... it was starting to reek, and the buzzards were waiting anxiously for the parking lots to clear out.

Bennett lost a lot of fish. That blast of warm water was lethal I guess.

Was wondering if anyone had updates and/or photos. Since Jerry from Weaver's has fallen on some more bad luck (prayers as always) I feel totally cut off from my favorite little trout park.

[brownieman]

You would think this would have made the news somewhere...seems to me it would have been covered by the media...

Certain things just don't seem to get much attention.

Just imagine several thousand trout piled up against screens in raceways, washed out on the banks, roads and anything else in the flood plane.

Nothing throws off more odor than a dead fish on a hot day...it will be a big stinkin mess to say the least.

Some pics of the damage would be interesting. Maybe someone got some pics and will post up with them.

The scavengers will eat good for awhile I reckon.

bm

[Greg]

I looked on Weaver's tackle website reports section - it's a good source for all things regarding Bennett Spring - but the reports are currently suspended due to the owners health.

But I can't imagine a major problem like that and no media coverage?

Greg

[oneshot]

This is all I could find.No mention of a Fish kill.

Bennett Spring State Park:

57 degrees, high, dingy; fishing is good; water levels have risen due to a recent flood; successful lures are: marabou jigs (black and yellow and ginger), mini-jigs (John Deere and bedspread); glo balls (chartreuse w/ red dot and original 3 color); dry flies: #12 chartreuse cracklebacks; other successful flies are brown wooly with gold spinner and red brassies; zone 3: white Power Bait. Due to the recent flood we were unable to cut weeds on August 22. We have rescheduled the weed cutting to September 11 from approximately 9 AM-3 PM. (Report made on 8/23/2007)

oneshot

[brownieman]

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind not mentioning the fish kill...imo, whats up with that?

bm

[oneshot]

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind not mentioning the fish kill...imo, whats up with that?

bm

My wife came up with this.Maybe because Laborday Weekend coming up their afraid it will keep people away.

Makes sence to me!

oneshot

[fishinwrench]

Yeah, there's not much talk about it in the shops either.

We fished it today for a bit....There's plenty of fish in Zone 2, but Zone 1 seems down on numbers noticably.

[brownieman]

My wife came up with this.Maybe because Laborday Weekend coming up their afraid it will keep people away.

Makes sence to me!

oneshot

I would say your wife is onto something, lol

[NoLuck]

I don't think the temperature of the water affected the fish as much as the fish being blown out of their normal channel. To me I would think they were probably pushed out on land after the water receded. I doubt that the fish would die that quick during a flood situation. The water temps should get back to a normal temp quickly after the water came back down to normal levels.

JMO but, I may be wrong.

Rich

[fishinwrench]

I don't think the temperature of the water affected the fish as much as the fish being blown out of their normal channel. To me I would think they were probably pushed out on land after the water receded. I doubt that the fish would die that quick during a flood situation. The water temps should get back to a normal temp quickly after the water came back down to normal levels.

JMO but, I may be wrong.

Rich

I'm sure the sudden influx of warm water was hard on them, I could feel through my waders that the water was warmer than usual, still today.

Which probably explains the lack of dead Browns...guess they can handle it.