Western Oklahoma. 15 acre 60 year old pond. Well established with fathead, bluegill, bass and a few large catfish. Aeration in the deepest (14 ft.) 1/3 of the pond. Most of the pond is 6 feet. Feeder.

This is the second time in 8 years that I've had the same problem. We had a bad drought. The pond was 4 1/2 feet low. We had a big rain that filled the pond overnight. Within a few weeks, algae formed on all of the parts of the pond that had been dry (probably 10% of the overall area of the pond) and were now underwater. After a couple of weeks of growing algae, it all floated to the top in large blackish green mats. After this took place, the bluegill completely disappeared. They no longer come to the feeder, they don't hang out under the dock, they haven't built nests in the nesting gravel. I have not seen or caught a single bluegill since the big rain.

We had a great crop of hybrid bluegill up to 1 1/2#, a few green sunfish, and very nice redear. I never saw any fish floating.
I am still catching some bass but their stomachs are pretty empty. I find a few baby bass in the stomach. I've started seeing a few dead baby bass floating. The fatheads have disappeared also.

When this happened 8 years ago, the only fish that I had left were the big 10 lb. catfish. I had to start from scratch with fatheads and palm sized hybrid bluegill. After a year, I stocked northern largemouth bass. The pond rebounded nicely and I have been catching lots of nice bluegill and bass up to 6 pounds.

I sure hate to have to start over again. Any ideas on what has happened, why no floating fish, and how to prevent it in the future.

So sorry to hear that, joe. I had a fish kill of my larger CNBG just last fall.

One question: When you said most of your BOW is six feet deep, does that mean it was less than two feet deep when it got 4 1/2 feet low?

Yes, quite a bit of the pond was about 2 feet deep during the worst. I wouldn't have been too long and 50% would have been dry ground.

I would bet that the dying, rotting, plants caused an O2 depletion.

In all of my years of keeping fish, I've never had a dead fish float. They typically sink on my camera.

The reasoning behind it is the amount of air they have in their swim bladder at the time of death. A fuller swim bladder may cause the body to float.

Dozens of floaters here over the years. Cold water may also slow floater's rising.