I live in a fairly new subdivision with a 43 1/2 acre lake. In August of 2000, we had a major fish kill due to an algae bloom cause by a food processing plant discharging excessive phosporus into the stream feeding our lake. We lost about 4000 pounds of fish including 10 pound bass. EPD is now closely monitoring the discharge and within 2 years the discharge will be sent to the county sewage system and no longer be placed into the stream. After an electroshock analysis, we added 2000 F1 bass to the lake in October of 2001 because the bluegill/crappie population went rampart as we had no bass left. We added 500 8-10 inch, 1000 6-8 inch, and 500 4 inch bass. We were trying to get bass into the lake while keeping the costs reasonable. The fishing was great last summer. On October 28, 2002 the developer lowered the lake to about 1 1/2 acres and is now in the final stages of removing the silt. He has agreed to replace the fish with size and quantity to the pre-dredging numbers. The deepest part of the lake is 15-17 feet with about a third of the lake being 6-8 feet deep. Another 1/2 of the lake is 3 to 4 feet deep.
Two weeks ago we had another electroshock analysis done on the remaining 1 1/2 acres of water. The remaining fish were estimated as follows: 600 white crappie, 100 yellow and brown bullhead, 25 green sunfish, 50 golden shiner, 250 redbreast, 30 largemounth bass, 500 bluegill, 100 redear, and 10 grass carp.
My question is this: Should we replace the bass, bluegill and carp or should we rotenone the remaining fish from the 1 1/2 acres and start over? What are your suggestions on size and quantites?
Thanks!!!
