# Carp Die Off this Summer



## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Does anyone know if there is somewhere I can find out if a lake was intentionally cleaned of carp. I don't think that I used the proper wording there, but let me explain a little. I read a post last year that the state (I suppose it was ODNR) had implemented strategies for reducing carp in lakes. I'm not sure of the legitimacy of that claim, but last year one of the lakes that I fish had a huge die off of carp within a week or so. Carp where the only fish that I saw floating around the lake. I looked a couple of the dead fish over and it did not look like they had been shot with a bow. When I say a huge die off I mean literally a hundred or so fish in a 50 or 60 acre section of water. I imagine that it could be coincidence but I just wanted to check and see if anyone has ideas of what happened. By the way, there were at least a dozen of fish in the 20-30 pound range. Made me sick to my stomach. 

I would appreciate any info.


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## On the Fly (Mar 6, 2011)

Sean,

I saw a situation once where a chemical was used to kill algae. For some reason. all or many of the carp died. I suspect the chemical was not used properly, but it was only the carp that suffered. For whatever this is worth.

Fly


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## leupy (Feb 12, 2007)

I have never heard of anything that would cause only carp to die off. If it is developed the people that live on Buckeye Lake would be the first customers.


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## On the Fly (Mar 6, 2011)

I'm certainly not an expert in pond management or a biologist by any means. I do know from past experience that correlation does not always mean causation. Just because the chemical applied to kill the algae was close to the time of the fish dying does not mean the chemical did it, but there still could be a connection. I did a little research on this and found an article that stated "Killing of heavy infestations of weeds after midsummer can contribute to a summer fish kill. The decomposition of weeds is an oxygen-using process, and a large amount of decomposing vegetation may reduce the dissolved oxygen level below that which fish require." If this is true ,the larger fish which require more oxygen would probably be the most vulnerable. Again, this may not be an answer to the question, but it is worth considering.

Fly


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## SeanStone (Sep 8, 2010)

Thanks for the info. The lake I am referring to has little vegitation, mainly because its deep and cool. I can't rule out the use of chemicals as weed control as a possibility, but I find it unlikely. I didn't want to come out and say this, in fear of sounding stupid . But is it possible that carp were collected with electro-shocking methods and then killed. If so I wouldn't think that the state would just dump them back into the water. I did notice a smaller die off in a nearby lake around the same time, but it wasn't near the magnitude as the first lake.


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