# fished west harbor on thursday. there was



## eriedude (Jul 15, 2010)

dead largemouths everywhere. i stopped counting at a hundered . i assume this was the result of the two tourneys out of there on the previous sunday. maybe the directors need to rethink having so many tournaments out of one launch or maybe the anglers could take better care of their fish. i understand youll lose a few fish but this was a massacre. even the walleye charter guys were commenting on this and not in a good way.


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## Dinger (Aug 24, 2005)

Hmmm....sounds like someone doesn't like tournaments.

Ding <---would have stopped counting a LOT sooner


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## eriedude (Jul 15, 2010)

no dinger i ve fished many many tournaments at all levels. im just not a big fan of dead bass.


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## CARP 104 (Apr 19, 2004)

That is horrible...

I find it hard to believe there would be that many dead bass from a couple of tournaments out there, but who knows. If it is a result of a tournament then fish are not being cared for properly. 

It was just largemouths, nothing else mixed in?


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## bassmaniac (May 10, 2004)

I would hate to see that. I too have fished tournaments at all levels but if I'm out just fun fishing I hate to kill even one. I wonder if part of the problem is catching fish out of 80 degree plus water and putting them into an iced down livewell then putting them back into that hotter water again, thats got to be hard on the fish.


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## rod bender bob (May 19, 2004)

Blue-green algae????


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## Phil Carver (Apr 5, 2004)

Rough ride from one location to another in a live well? It seems that after most events up on the lake there are a bunch of dead fish the next few days around the ramp areas.


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## JamesT (Jul 22, 2005)

Could they be getting pulled up from deeper water too quickly and getting "the bends"?


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## lordofthepunks (Feb 24, 2009)

JamesT said:


> Could they be getting pulled up from deeper water too quickly and getting "the bends"?


aint much deep water in western erie


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## johnboy111711 (Apr 7, 2004)

i would have called the ODNR immediately to run tests on the fish. did you collect samples? take pictures? we need to get to the bottom of this immediately and i really feel the only way to do this is scoop some fish and dump them at district 3 head quarters and demand answers. sounds like it might be viral, idk? I wouldn't assume anything, just hope it isn't something like the fish flu that could wipe out human populations too.


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## flounder (May 15, 2004)

Does warmer water + decaying vegetation + lower dissolved oxygen equal dead fish? There could be other reasons than tourney fishing. It was alot warmer over July than it has been in a long time and I've noticed some vegetation already dying off in some areas.


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## Ohio Ice (Feb 8, 2009)

As one of the directors of the Great lakes largemouth Series we are very concerned about any dead fish. We take pride in taking care of our fish.

We have rules that penalize any dead fish in our series. We also limit how many bags that we hand out during the weigh in so there is not a line of fisherman waiting to weigh in.

Also, we are are all anglers who care about the fish and we do everything to keep them alive. 

We had 92 fish released alive on Sunday so if there where Hundreds on Thursday than I think there could be something else that contributed to the fish kill. Please call ODNR when this type of fish kill happens.

We have made a call into the District 2 wild life agent to confirm these reports so they can find out if and what caused the deaths. We will post his response.


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## bluestreak64 (May 26, 2011)

I fished the other tournament that day and we released 62 fish all alive.We also take pride in the care of our catch and go to great lengths to ensure their live release.I'm sorry to hear that there was a fish kill,there was a tremendous amount of run-off from that storm on Sunday.I wonder if that may have contributed to the situation?


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## Ohio Ice (Feb 8, 2009)

We just received a call from the wild life agent that covers that area and he left us a message saying that there was no reports of a fish kill and that if there was a fish kill of that size than his contacts in the area would be all over it.

I am glad Blue streak also released his fish alive as well.

I would request that this post be removed since it was a rumor and he only has 3 posts.


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## Dinger (Aug 24, 2005)

Ding <----with a nod to Snidely Whiplash


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## johnboy111711 (Apr 7, 2004)

it was probably all the walleye guys emptying their septics into the lake again


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## lakeslouie (Jan 11, 2006)

There are alot of tourny groups that say they care for fish but only do the basics. Do they set up an aeration tank for replenishing dissolved oxygen back into the weigh bags before weigh in? A typical weigh bag with a limit of fish has about 5 min of 02 before the fish can become dangerously stressed. Less time in hot weather. Or how bout an aerated treatment tank before fish are released to protect slime layer and calm fish down. Some do all this, but most don't! Stressed fish will all swim away but usually die within 24-48 hrs after release. Its called post mortality. I'm not sayin this is what killed these fish, just an opportunity here to maybe educate some anglers about properly run tournament weigh ins. Sometimes anglers use additives in their wells that will detrimate survival of fish in the long run. Nothing can be done about that cept to educate anglers. Look for products that calm fish down, not jack them up. 
Largemouths, that surprises me. Usually its the smallies pulled from the deep that are not fizzed that go belly up. Hope some answers come from this.


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## Ohio Ice (Feb 8, 2009)

Lakes Louie,

There was no fish kill. You must not have seen my post from the ODNR officer.

Thanks for your info. Good Stuff


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