# Water report Deleware



## avantifishski (Apr 8, 2012)

Any know how the water is on the deleware lake? 

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## ron92 (Jan 29, 2009)

High and muddy..marina ramp is still not done, the other ramp is up and cannot use it unless you walk thru the water


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## Livebait (Aug 25, 2010)

I was there yesterday. It's definitely up and muddy.


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## Crest17cx (Jan 29, 2013)

Was there yesterday as well..... South ramp is the only one open. To launch, we had to walk through 2-3 inches of water and endure the stinch and mess of all of the dead shad. Though, coming back to ramp 5 hours later, the water dropped enough to not have to walk through water again. Water was merky. I stayed south because having my boys and boat out for the first time. No crappie bobbing minows nor jigging. Couldn't even locate any schools on FF. Many were fishing the damn but I don't think they did very well.

I saw a lot of boat launching in the evening. I wonder how they did with catfish given the feeding frenzy of all of the dead shad?

I wonder how


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## Livebait (Aug 25, 2010)

Yeah I was out this morning for about 2 hours with no bites on anything. Got so desperate tried using the worms I keep for my 6 year old and still nothing. The stench is terrible as well.


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## delaware*fish*freak (May 28, 2012)

I pulled in 30 crappie at the dam but only 3 of them were keepers yesterday


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## Livebait (Aug 25, 2010)

Off of 23? I don't usually go up there, usually out in the wildlife area.


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## KatseekN (Apr 10, 2012)

Hit Delaware today. The water is in surprisingly good condition given all the rain. Big crappie were hitting jigs on the north end. Still around submerged brush.

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## delaware*fish*freak (May 28, 2012)

Was in the river below the dam again tonight from 5-830 and pulled in close to 100 fish but only 4 were keepers. Still had fun with all the action tho 


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## BuckeyeBruno (Mar 1, 2013)

Kayak fished on friday up north and had some luck. all were keepers but only got 5 to even hit. still pretty chilly im guessing. I have no FF so im doing it old school.


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## fishslim (Apr 28, 2005)

Anybody figure out why there was a big shad kill? Was it just shad or other type fish? Just at southend or were they dead in other areas as well? Thanks curious


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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

There today water smelled awful and quite muddy no fish caught. While on the water I counted about 10 dead Crappie and a couple small catfish so seems like other fish are not very affected. Ramp talk was the kill was from the many changes in water there with them redoing the docks. Water was normal only had to walk through lbs of shad loading and unloading. Also dealing with Shad on the water every where we went only went to the campgounds however.


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## fishslim (Apr 28, 2005)

Thanks i dont buy the water level thing Alum was down same way did not see that there,fluctuation with drastic tempature change i would buy but water temps did not vary that drastically. No chemical spills?


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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

Yeah I was not buying it either looking at the shores there is a whole bunch of dead shad I didn't even think there was that many shad in there. Also not seeing many live shad like you normally would see. But on the other hand I feel a chemical spill would take a larger toll on the other fish. I should also say the person saying this was in one of the trucks that has been in the additional parking section asplundha or something like that.

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## avantifishski (Apr 8, 2012)

Whats the odnr saying? 

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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

Havent heard anything yet from them. I read somewhere shad tend to die when the water tempture rises rapidly and with the lovely ohio weather we have had this year with 30 degree temps one day to high 70's the next this seems a logical idea to me.


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## Crest17cx (Jan 29, 2013)

I personally think the increase in almost 20 ft of water in 2 days (putting it above 17ft for summer pool) put too much water pressure on the smaller fish. 17ft of water accrosss that that large of footprint would cause a lot of additional pressure, blowing out the lungs of the smaller fish. Notice there were not any larger fish.


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## onthewater (May 20, 2005)

I have never seen a Shad kill of this magnitude this late in the spring on that lake in the 40 years I've been hanging around up there. We have had many bigger floods than the one we had recently with out any dieoffs. You always have the usually big die off late winter, which we did, but this die off is much bigger than that one was. The only other dead fish I saw were a few small catfish. Don't know what caused it but it may be some kind of virus. I'd like to see the DOW look into this but doubt they will.
Most likely going to be fewer shad than normal in the lake this summer. Could make for some better than average fishing but growth rates may suffer.
Fishe south end last night for about an hour. Water was up slightly better looking than expected. Caught 8 keepers, 5-6 feet deep on tubes. The stench was awful. 
I did see a some guys set off a couple small bombs. They threw them in the water from the high wall across from the beach. Looked like empty soda bottles, and when they blew it was very loud. The first one scared the crap out of me. They took off quickly after they blew the second one. Never seen that before.


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## Bonecrusher (Aug 7, 2010)

Out of curiosity did you report the guys with the bombs?


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## onthewater (May 20, 2005)

No. Couldn't see what they drove. Only got a glimpse of them.


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## Bonecrusher (Aug 7, 2010)

Gotcha that would be some scary stuff!


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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

No kidding that'd scare me too. My luck I would have fell in the water.

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## Bonecrusher (Aug 7, 2010)

Here is the answer from the ODNR. Pretty much what we already knew but hey... 
"Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Hi again, Steve. Here's what the fisheries biologist thinks is going on:

There are springs like this one, when the water temps warm up real fast, that viruses, parasites, or bacteria get ahead of fish's immune systems and there is a fish kill. This is probably what happened at Delaware since it seems to be more than shad. Usually the kill affects just a small segment of the population."


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## onthewater (May 20, 2005)

In other words, they did not look into it. Standard response for the annual ice out Shad kill. Who here thinks the water warmed up fast this year? Compared to last spring, when we had a week of upper 70's/low 80's weather in March, it was a slow warm up this year. Any other lakes in the area have a similar die off in the last 3 weeks? 
I'm guessing the lakes Shad will be fine but it sure does stink up there right now.Be glad the Crappie tourney is at Alum this weekend.


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## crittergitter (Jun 9, 2005)

1. I don't usually get worried about a small die off of fish.

2. This time of year is NOT normal for a shad die off.

3. There have been reports of catfish in the upper Olentangy that appeared to be diseased and dying.

4. I promise you, I will not eat anything out of that lake this year. I would rather be safe than sorry.


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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

Yeah thanks for the update from ODNR kinda seen the response coming though. Delaware is the only place I am seeing dead fish other than then normal anyways. 

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## delaware*fish*freak (May 28, 2012)

I saw 3 different catfish swimming on top there today and it looked like they had some kind of fungus on them. I also saw a couple dead crappie and a nice sized white bass dead along with the million shad


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## HookSet Harvey (Aug 12, 2010)

I also seen catfish with the sucm all over them swimming on the surface half dead. Theres gotta be something up. Also seen some fresh big dead suckers up the river that looked like they died for no reason.


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## KatseekN (Apr 10, 2012)

Bass seem fine.







12 so far today.

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## KatseekN (Apr 10, 2012)

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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

Nice fish I drove clear to pleasant hill today when I could of just went to Delaware man who would have thought

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## brandon0891 (Mar 5, 2008)

KatseekN said:


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Were you fishing deep or shallow? I could barely handle the horrible smell there. Its like the liquid from a dumpster...

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## KatseekN (Apr 10, 2012)

Shallow. 4-6'. Jig and pig. Got a nice one yesterday first cast then they seemed to shut down.








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## davisw4089 (Feb 19, 2013)

Nice fish was out today only one in the boat though.

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