Dead Crappies

[Murdock]

Was on a local lake this last weekend and found thousands of dead crappies. Most were in the 4 to 7 inch range, but picked up a handfull of dead 15+ inchers. I then found thousands more sucking air at the water surface. I walked in the water and simply reached in and picked them up. Could this have been caused by the lake turn over combined with the above normal temps we have experienced resulting in a depletion of oxygen in the shallower depths? In your opinion is this normal or a cause for concern? The eagles and gulls were have a feast along with alot of pike. Toss us your opinion.

[Black_Bay]

It's whats known as summer kill. As you stated it's oxygen depletion of the water. It usually happens in lakes with heavy vegetation.

Call the DNR East Metro office. I'm sure they'd like to know about it. The number is 6517727950. It's also in the back of the regs book.

[MidCoast]

15 plus crappies?? What lake is that?

[ozzie]

they are dead now!!!

[MidCoast]

Yeah, earlier this summer, I was at Lake Nokomis and i saw soo many dead crappies along the shoreline. Some were pretty good size too, such as 9 to 10 inches long. I never knew Nokomis had that many crappies in it.

[jigging-matt]

Clear Lake, here in Waseca county had that happen a couple of years ago. The city contracted out with a company to spray for mosquitos. They spray, a day or two later we receive heavy rains, not soon after that thousands of crappies end up dead all over the lake. Acutally help the population though. they were starting to get stunted. Now you can catch nice size sunnies and crappies.