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My wife and I went to a small local pond that is my favorite fishing spot, and where I had planned on catching some bass and carp on my first fly rod this year. We got some bad news getting out of the car - some old-timer walking his dog told us there were dead carp on the banks, said it didn't look like anything made it through the winter. It looked like he was right - lots of nice, big carp, rotting on the banks. Carp that I was planning on catching this year. Nearly brought a tear to my eye. I didn't see any other dead fish, though; no bass, bluegill, or bullheads, which are all abundant in there. But I also didn't see any signs of life either, and that pond is usually teaming with little sunfish waiting for kids to throw breadcrumbs in for 'em.

 

But why only dead carp on the banks? I guess the small fish could have been picked up by scavengers, but there were some good size largemouths in there too, and I while didn't see any on the banks I guess it could just be a matter of sink -vs- float. Any chance some are still holding in the deep? I felt like if anything stood a chance to weather the winter it would have been the carp, but I guess I'm not so sure. Maybe the bluegills made it with a smaller food requirement? They can't ALL be gone, man - say it ain't so.

 

I'm hoping for the best, but I'm fearing the worst.

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how deep is the pond? i fish at a friends pond and none of the fish died in there.. and their is a good amount of bluegill and small bass and only 1 big carp. the pond is about 13ft deep in the middle witch the pond isn't very deep. i am also from Michigan winter was horrible this year. maybe there was soo much fish in there and they ran out of oxygen? since everything got frozen and it was cold for soo long? just guessing.

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I'm also in Michigan (Royal Oak) and even though we did have one of the most brutally cold winters on record, I really doubt that is what killed the carp. My sister has a koi pond that is only about 30" deep and she didn't even lose any koi this winter to the weather. If it were a variety of fish I would be more inclined to agree it was a winter kill, but since it was only carp I would almost lean towards thinking that it may have been a group of fisherman that thought they were ridding the pond of "trash fish" that they caught (the carp) by leaving them on the banks to die. I've seen it happen before where guys would catch a carp or sucker and throw it on the bank to die. Sadly you get a group of numbskulls like that and they could leave a wake of dead carp behind.

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"... the koi herpesvirus (KHV) killed approximately 16,000 carp at the Jackson County lake – or about 75 percent of the carp in the lake."

 

There are a ton of reports like this online. If it's only carp you're seeing, very possibly something like this.

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Sometimes I think I'm on another planet than the one I grew up on.

 

Mourning the mass passing of carp was a rare -- if ever -- event in MI before they crossed the line into the pursued game fish side of the game.

 

I never have fished for them or even caught them by accident. But I've thought evil of them when they plowed theirway through breeding beds sucking up eggs and muddying the waters in their wakes.

 

The lack of other dead fish is a puzzler. It is much too early in the season for them to be rioting in the shallows. Is there a carp specific toxin that the land owner or someone may have used to kill them? Were there wounds from arrows? (Bow 'fishermen' do not have the option of catch and release.)

 

The best thing about MI is that lakes are damn near everywhere and there should be some good options nearby for you.

 

Rocco

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I live in Michigan, and I had the itch to get out to the pond behind my house to practice some fly casting on the bluegills. Once I got out there, I realized that there weren't any fish left. The pond is about 1/4 acre in size, with an average depth of 4-6ft, and the deepest point is about 10'-12'. There were lots of bluegills dead along the banks, and what disappointed me the most was that there were 3 real nice Largemouth Bass that were also dead. I hadn't caught one of those in years, and thought they had already been taken out of the equation. If I had to take a guess I would say that winterkill was the culprit.

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I'm in West Michigan and I'll add my tale of melancholy to the mix. One of the first places I usually visit in early spring is a little pond on a local church's property (open to the public). It's almost exactly like the one Trouser Trout describes in terms of size. It was full of bluegills and some pretty nice largemouth. I was there a couple of weeks ago on a warm day, and there were no signs of life at all. There were several smaller bass dead in the shallows. I'm guessing it will have to be re-stocked. The good news is that, assuming they do re-stock it, it won't take long for bluegills to proliferate, or for the bass to fatten up on them. Hope springs eternal. :)

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In a lake and outflow creek very near where I grew up, several years ago there was some sort of disease which hit carp hard and had almost no effect on other fish. It might have been what Mike described. When I was a kid there were thousands of carp in the creek. That is where we used to catch them on flies when nothing else was happening... and why I was (an remain) so puzzled about the BFD people make about carp these days. No offense to the Brits on here... Now the smallmouth bass population is better than ever in that creek, but the carp are slowly coming back, but nowhere near their previous numbers. Crying over dead carp is not something I'm familiar with....

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20 yrs ago I would be encouraging you guys in MI to contact the Ministry office, or whichever it is in your area, but if its anything like ours, you cant find a ministry of natural resources officer unless its in the fall, and your hunting deer from your car. - so some would say :) I personally haven't met one outside for 12 yrs or so now.

 

I am sure if you call a 1-800 number some branch of government will be more then willing to try and make you feel like they care.

 

If, by chance you know a "Game Warden" this is something they should be looking into. Carp are more fragile, and sensitive to toxins then most other fish, and generally the first to be effected by issues in the water.

 

SOMETHING is wrong.

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Carp are still considered trash fish here in Kentucky and most fisherman rid the lake of them as well as gar. Not familiar with winter kill here in ky but did have a ton of fish die in cumberland because of work on dam and constantly drawing the lake down.

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If it affected mostly or only the carp in the pond then winterkill wasn't the culprit. Carp are the most likley to survive of any species along with bullhead in a winterkill situation.

 

I lived in Minnesota for a long time where it was illegal to return to the water any carp or many other rough fish. they had to be killed and many ended up on the shores of the lakes.

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Carp are more fragile, and sensitive to toxins then most other fish, and generally the first to be effected by issues in the water.

Sorry, I've never heard this before. I have always seen carp in waters nothing else could live in. I thought they were the last to be effected by low water oxygen, pollutants or other normal fish kill events. The disease listed online is the only thing I've heard of that targets carp and leaves most other fish alone.

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Carp are more fragile, and sensitive to toxins then most other fish, and generally the first to be effected by issues in the water.

 

Wayne, sorry bro, but that is flat out wrong, no matter what the new generation of yuppie fly fishermen want people to believe.

 

Mike beat me to it... but I can show you some godawful places where carp are living and gamefish aren't, due to pollution, turbidity, and temperature.

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