Finaddict
08-31-2002, 07:32 PM
I read that there was hundreds of dead fish washing up on Geneva beeches on an previous post. Is this true and does anyone know the reason why?
finaddict
On Wednesday, Aug 28, my brother & I traveled to Ashtabula to fish for a few days. We found the old Fish City ramp at Ashtabula closed and then we inquired about other launch sites in the area. A gentlemen told us about a couple other ramps in the area and also about the Geneva State Park facility. Since we did not get into Ashtabula until 10:00 AM and by then most all charters had either not gone out that morning at all or had already returned due to the wave conditions, we decided to drive over to the park and check out the conditions there. We were advised not to go out at that time so we had some time to kill. While we waited hoping that the water conditions would improve, we walked around to the marina area that faces the open lake. There we saw hundreds of either dead or dying fish on the shore or floundering in the surf. Most were very large drum (sheepshead) and some were small mouth bass. I thought I saw an occassional walleye floating but was not sure at that time. However, after waiting a couple of hours, we launched out boat and headed out into the lake. Just after leaving the mouth of the harbor to the marina, we passed by a very large floating walleye. At that time, I realized that some of the dead fish that we had seen earlier from the bank were surely walleyes also. Before launching, I mentioned the dead fish to the young lady working the cash register at the marina store and she said a team of "people" were expected to come there to gather information about the kill. We also overheard other people talking about the dead fish as we waited for the water conditions to improve.
Also, on August 8-9-10, we fished out of Dunkirk. The lake was absolutely flat on those days. We saw many floating drum in that area, too, but we did not see other species (that we recognized.) All the floaters that we saw at Dunkirk were several miles into the lake. We were not at any beach site in that area to make obversations near shore and we did not see any dead fish as we went in and our of the Dunkirk harbor.
We love to come to Lake Erie to fish but are fearful that the fish kill that seems to be quite broad across the lake might have a negative long term impact on the fish population.
jj from WV