Winter Kill

[SkunkedAgain]

Ice is coming off the last of the back water ponds of Cutler and I was walking along the edge tonight and I seen a sight. There were 6 dead cats that were 27-30" each maybe bigger but I didn't want to touch them to get a measure. Also one 24"er and about a dozen huge dead carp that were 8-10" deep and 30+" er's I've never seen so many big fish and they were all dead. The pond wasn't very big and doesn't have a lot of flow but it's about 6' deep so I'm trying to decide what killed them all. I caught crappie in there a week ago and watched a fair school of them on the camera so I don't think it was an oxygen shortage. We did have 35 below zero this winter but other than that I usually never see much for winter kill on this pond, even when the water is way low. Ice only got about 12" thick at the thickest. What's your thoughts and do you think we'll have any big fish left? Later J
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[liv2hunt]

Oxygen depletion in the pond. Big fish need more O2 to breath than small fish. That would be my guess. You said little flow into the pond bringing in limited oxygen, and only six foot deep. Sounds like poor water quality led to limited survival of the bigger fish.
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[SkunkedAgain]

That's probably what I figured, I just didn't know smaller fish could get by on less. Plus other years with less water in the pond hasn't shown much of a winter kill, but who knows if the fish were in there that year. I always figured carp would live through anything and game fish would die first, but maybe not. It was all big fish that were dead at least that I could see. Anyway deal I would have liked to catch those cats. Later J
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[gambler209]

fished cuttler for years and that does happen from time to time don't worry the big fish are still in there
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[SkunkedAgain]

Hey thanks for the encouragement, I know some always make it and this is a sort of stagnant backwater so I'm sure it's not like the river tied areas that keep the oxygen moving.. Was out last night and there is even more dead fish than I thought, it was a real mess, but I put out a minnow trap and caught a batch of crappie and sunfish minnows so not everything is dead... Minnows were all released per requirement... no fatheads or carp unfortunately... One of these days I'll try the cats on the mainwater... Later J
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