Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Nebraska Game & Parks Commision news release

NGPC news release, 2/13/08:

LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska Game and Parks Commission fisheries biologists want to fore-warn anglers and pond owners of the possibility of them seeing some dead fish floating along the bank of their favorite lake or pond when the ice melts this spring.

Dave Tunink, assistant administrator of the Fisheries Division, said winter fish kills occur when snow cover remains on the ice for extended periods of time and causes aquatic vegetation to die and decompose under the ice, reducing the amount of oxygen in the water.

When ice melts from the lake, fish that died under the ice during the winter float to the surface and are washed into shallow water where people see the carcasses floating along the shoreline.

When people see the dead fish, they often assume runoff has carried chemicals into the lake and the chemicals killed the fish, but it is usually just a natural die-off due to low dissolved oxygen levels in the water during the winter months.

Gizzard shad die-offs are very common and occur nearly every winter. Channel catfish anglers are familiar with those die-offs and use the shad as bait.

The severity of die-offs varies from lake to lake and do not always involve the entire fish population. Tunink said unfortunately species such as bullheads and common carp are among the most tolerant of lower dissolved oxygen levels.

Tunink said people who are wondering if their pond is having a die-off problem can drill a hole in the ice and if the water smells like rotten eggs or they see dead fish, they probably do have a problem. If this is the case, they are encouraged to check the pond in the spring by walking along the shoreline to see if they can observe fish spawning in the shallows. If they do see fish spawning, the pond should be alright. If not, they may have to restock the pond.

Tunink said people can report large fish die-offs to their district Commission office.

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So far we are OK, but the longer we have snow on the ice, the more worried about it I get. It's been a long time since we have had a winter like this one.

Yikes! I hope it turns out alright for you.

I just don't know how you northern guys (anything north of Dallas is "northern" to me) do it. I'd go nuts if the ponds were frozen like that for long periods of time.

So far I would say "So far."

We had a guy out ice fishing with an Aqua Vue camera 10 days ago, no dead fish were spotted under the ice then. He did say was amazed at the number of big fish that would come up and look at his bait and not take it. He did catch a 17-1/2" LMB that he said looked small in comparison to the other LMB nearby.

I do know that one to the guys on the NE Fish and Game Association forum said he spotted lots of dead fish with his aquaview under the ice at one of the smaller public lakes two weeks ago.

Is there any average amount of snow and/or time frame that a pond owner might expect before a depleted DO die-off might occur?

Brettski, I have never seen any guidelines on that, my guess is that it varies depending on both the quantity and type of vegetation present in your pond.

Bski you are ok for this year. With a new pond (little veg.) , intermittent ice/snow and a lot of excess carrying capacity your small fish will be ok from winter DO problems. That is not to say that there will be enough for them to eat so as to survive (avoid starvation)their first winter but that is a different question.

Brettski, I bet you haven't been frozen over much more than I have this year, so you probably wouldn't have had snow cover for "too long" a period of time even if the pond was mature.

Here is a picture taken on Christmas day just to give you an idea how long we have had snow on top of the the ice here in Ne. The ice was 5-6" then, it's now 12" plus with a very cloudy layer on top. The snow has melted, refroze, then another layer of snow deposited on top of that several times since then. Note: That's my 12 year old german short haired pointer named Shorty sleeping on the jackets.

That's a great pic, Shorty. My last dog, as a teenager, was a liver/tick German Shorthair...great dog.

12/10 was when the first guys got going on the ice around here. Shorty, do you remove the snow on your pond or parts of it?

Nope! 9.9 acres is a little too much to be shoveling by hand.

"We named the dog Indiana."

This is off-topic, but since its Shorty's dog...

My buddy got a german short hair and she was always high strung; in this case, the dog had no discipline and probably heard voices in its head. Her name is Sadie.

The same friend had a house on High Point Lake in PA. A bunch of us were at his house which was about 1/8 mile up a gradual hill from the lake shore. My wife and I and our dog walked down to the shore and were hanging out. There was a row boat with three dudes fishing about 400 yards off shore. Sadie ending up showing up at the shoreline and proceeded to enter the water and swim towards the guys in the boat. The whole time Sadie was within 50' of the shore, I was yelling at her to come back, yet as I indicated before, she listened to no one.

She reached the row boat of fishermen and proceeded to swim circles around them, literally. She flanked them by about a 15' radius making it very hard for the fishermen to continue fishing.

One fisherman stood up in the boat, cupped his hands around his mouth, and bellowed out to me "call your dog!"

I put my beer down, cupped my hands around my mouth, and bellowed back "that's not my dog!"

In the end, Sadie circled these guys for about 15 minutes. I really thought the dog was going to die. I'm pretty sure she managed to bark the entire time she circled the poor fishermen.

My buddy had rode down on his quad and called out to the dog, but she payed no heed. Finally, she must have realized she couldn't swim forever and came into shore.

Don't get me wrong though, no knock on German Shorhairs. This dog, Sadie, just was not all there, and when you mentioned the breed, it reminded of the story.

Shorty, ya gotta get one of these



Monday nite/Tuesday was the first time this year we got enough snow to make it worth clearing some of the ice. We've had snow but it's been gone in a day or two or a heavy rain washes of melts it away.



The top has melted and refrozen numerious times with all the rain this winter and we finally were able to do some fishing the third week of January when the ice got to 3 1/2 inches.



Last weekend was pretty cold (not anywhere -40 like some) and Wednesday there was about 5 1/2 inches of ice so I cleared off a track about 1800 feet long and 25 feet wide more for fun than anything else.

Hope your fish come thru OK.

Shorty -- we've lost a few of the public lakes around here, but only the shallow, overly productive ones. The better quality waters are still ok.

Hope your fish come through O.K. too. Here too we have had heavy snow on and off with several thaws. That said I relgiously clear strips of snow off with my snowblower to stay on the safe side. I used to use a diffuser in the shallow end of my ponds but seemed to have better luck clearing off snow to let light in.

I usually make some holes around my cages and clear snow around them to let light in also.

Bill Cody is a good one to gleen informaton from about this topic. I believe he has it down to a science on how many days of snow cover until you should worry, how many inches of snow etc.

Here'a pic of what I do on my small pond immediately after a snow fall. I would also do it on my big pond but there are no fish in it at the present so no need to do anything.

All the bird dogs we've had were high strung and not the brightest. I'll take a mutt anyday!

Shorty is a very bright dog and very well mannered, our young Powder pup, now 1-1/2 years old on the other hand is quite high strung and quite a handfull. One thing about German short hairs, they love the water and love to hunt.

Cecil, are there any previous threads where Cody gives an approximate time frame on the amount of snow and ice cover that might lead to a fish kill?

Not sure. I did email him though and asked him to chime in.

Rate of DO loss under the ice is dependant on numerous things and will vary from pond to pond. Main factors to consider are ice thickness, ice clarity, snow cover, time length of snow cover, water clarity, amount of organic bottom accumulation, amount of rooted weed growth and water depth. Obviously all these variables makes estimating winter kill risky. Generally I do not worry about oxygen loss of my pond until at least 3"-4" of snow covers the ice for 3 wks. After that things can in a eutrophic pond deteriorate rapidly. Deep water ponds (>16ft) with a large percentage of deep water will hold more available oxygen and when low weed cover is present, can go for 4-8wks with snow cover and still have adequate DO.

Shorty needs a vehicle like Dan P has to remove 4 ft wide strips of snow from his 9 ac lake. The 4 wheelers are relatively light weight and can push lots of snow fairly quickly. 6" of clear ice should easily hold up a normal 4 wheeler. Dan trusts 5" of ice for his 4 wheeler. Goal would be to remove length wise N-S strips similar to Cecil's photo above. Although Cecil has revoved more snow in the photo than necessary. In many cases 10% of the surface cleared should be adequate. My friend had his 4 wheeler break through thin ice under some deep drifted snow near the shore. Airfilled balloon tires floated the 4 wheeler.

(add that one to the "fish for dummies" thread, please)

Thanks Bill! The guy with the Aquaview was out again on Saturday fishing, no dead fish yet.