Midwest Fish Kill

[Ryan Kral]

Thought you guys may find this interesting, not suprising, but interesting. Ryan

http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-fish-die-midwest-streams-heat-183228110.html

[Mike G]

Nice one Ryan.

 

The shoot out that is going around on this site may never conclude what the fisherman on the street should do--lay off or go for the kill. On the one hand, seems like they will die no matter what we do. On the other hand, they will live no matter what we do.

[Guest Jim S.]

If there is such a concern, why does the DNR allow the local golf courses to pump water from the river to water the greens and fairways? I've never understood why it has been allowed.

[John Loebach]

Thereis no shoot out as you call it Mike. Nor is the drought a reason to stir the pot with ridiculous statements that divide opinion on the order of damned if you do & damned if you don't. It is an individual judgment call to fish or not. Or do you want to encourage groups like Peta to assault any who partake of the outdoor sports? I won't respond to any further "philosophy" on this subject.

[Terry Dodge]

I guess I'll just consider myself lucky.

[Rob G]

Yea Terry, I fish at least 6 different streams around here and have not seen any fish kill off. I have seen no ill effect on the smallies whatsoever. I do have a small 5 1/2 acre pond that I like to fish but haven't touched since first of May since it is only 60% stil wet and undoubtedly will lose a lot of fish if we don't get some heavy fall rains.

[Terry Dodge]

My home water is running about 5 1/2 inches below the norm and although I have not taken an actual temp. reading, I would have to say (by feel when wading) the water temp. is in the mid 70's. On the video in Ryan's link it says that the Fox is 4 feet below the norm. Is that for real?

 

My home water flow is normally at 5.75 for this time of year. Right now it's at 5.23 but the problem is, it's been running at this level for a couple months now. I think what little bit of rain we have gotten over the last couple weeks has helped cool and clear up the river. We still need a good full days rain.

What they say in the Fox River video sounds to me like they are making it sound worse than it really is. Don't get me wrong, I understand that we are at record lows across the state but to say that 9 inches of rain to bring the Fox up to norm sounds way off base to me. Are they considering run-off? I would think about 4 inches of rain should do the trick. The Fox is not a river that I'm familiar with so "I" may be way off base.

[Dana Lee]

Powerton is toast officially. Tens of thousands at powerton dead.

[Eric]

Yeah Terry, it is going to take a heck of a lot of rain to bring the Fox back up to 'normal' levels and to keep it there for any length of time. It is pretty darn low. The rain we got on Saturday shot it up from around 250 CFS to over 1,000 CFS but it peaked and dropped very quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

A few of the gravel bars that are occasionally exposed have been dry for quite a while and have knee-high weeds covering them. I have only observed a few dead fish -- a redhorse and a gizzard shad. Other Fox anglers may have seen more. The two biologists that I heard back from last week said they have not seen any major dieoffs of bass. Still, sure would be nice to get some rain!