Gary’s Blog Major Fish Kill on Lake Puckaway, Many, Many Walleyes Die 12-4-09
gengberg December 4th, 2009
I just got this email from professional angler, Daryl Christensen of Montello, Wisconsin. Daryl has been a leading money winner on many of the walleye circuits over the years and he grew up fishing the Fox River and Lake Puckaway. I asked him what was going on with the fish kill and he sent this email to me explaining what he knows and has found out. I guess we have to wait for the DNR to get the final word.
Well, it seems that the DNR is studying it and will give their response late this week. Of course, the fish suffocated, and they are trying to determine if they were overcrowded in a commercial fishing net or if it was something else. Most of the fish were walleyes, which we know need high levels of dissolved oxygen and don’t do well when crowded. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the DNR assesment.
What I do know is this:
Commercial carp fishermen had a big pull a couple of weeks ago, but could such a pull kill three to five thousand walleyes?
Water temps at the time had climbed from 39 degrees to 50 degrees during the November warm spell.
Water levels dropped rapidly at the same time because of flash board removal from the Princeton dam, dropping the water by almost a foot in a few days. This may have caused the walleyes to move into the lake’s central basin along with the carp, concentrating them in a small area and depleting the oxygen.
High winds caused intense siltation of the lake at the same time, which could have also helped deplete oxygen.
So it’s possible that all of these things might have caused the kill.
It seems the kill occured about 3 weeks ago, which would have put it about the time all of these other factors occured.
-Daryl
This is a terrible kill and I hope it was “Mother Nature” and not a human error or mistake. Many of these fish were big walleyes. Take a few thousand walleyes and many breeding females out of any waters and their will be problems down the line. I’ll post more as I get the news and reports. Gary
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