My old fashioned way to check the overall condition of fish during winter was to ice fish for them with bait near the bottom. If you can get some bites they are okay. My current method is to use my DO meter. If your water is reasonably clear you can use the underwater camera which would be the best way to check on newly stocked fingerling fish with no adults present. If your water is fairly clear you might try chumming them with some dry oat meal. Or another way is to lower a small weight to the bottom and bounce it around. This often attracts some small fish to the sediment cloud activity. If you are keeping snow off the ice for all winter ice skating then you shouldn't have any problem with fish kill.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/28/20 05:09 PM.

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