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Lake James walleye kill

7K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  hellomcfly2 
#1 ·
Anybody have any info about it? I heard it was bad.
 
#4 ·
It appears to have happened in the North Fork River area. They apparently have tested for, and found PCBs in the lake....but the more likely cause is the HEAT. "One biologist said tests suggested a pocket of water with no oxygen formed deep in the lake, and the warm, dry weather is pushing the fish down into it, killing them".
Walleye and Trout .....and Any Fish that lives in the oxygen-poor waters below the thermocline....are vulnerable in the summer. Seventy Five Degrees is about the Max Upper Limit ....in my experience....D

 
#5 ·
Water quality has been going downhill at Lake James for years.

Its why Lake Norman can longer support striped bass or Lake Lure can no longer support rainbow trout.

Walleye during the summer a deep water fish. Will it get to the point LJ can no longer support walleye? Maybe but I doubt it.

I do think you will see occasional walleye kills but not to the extent you saw striper kills at Lake Norman.
 
#8 ·
Here is a pretty neat article on water Temps and Oxygen from the Georgia DNR that explains why wind, rain and current are important and how ultimately Lake Turnover recharges the Oxygen levels below the Thermocline. In Healthy lakes....it's not much of an issue, but, Heat and Drought can cause the oxygen to become depleted in lakes with little "movement". While the article is about Georgia waters.....the same applies to Lake James, Norman, Fontana etc....D

https://georgiawildlife.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/where-are-the-fish/
 
#18 ·
Here is some Old Data from Duke Energy that I stumbled across....from the year 2000. It shows the Dissolved Oxygen levels for three of my favorite lakes.....Cedar Cliff, Bear and Wolf. While the Data is Pretty Old....it still illustrates the lack of Oxygen below certain surprisingly shallow depths in these lakes....and is still useful. From the Surface to Ten Feet ....is always the best.....but some fish (Trout, Stripers, Walleye) can't handle the Summer Temperatures and are forced downwards into the low oxygen levels. Trout need 6ppm to be active....while Bass need 5ppm....but, Bass can tolerate Heat much better. The rising temps are squeezing Coldwater and Coolwater Fish into very narrow bands in the summer.....and sometimes....leaving them Nowhere to live. This is probably what happened at Lake James. This makes me want to buy my own O2 probe to keep an eye on things for myself.....D

 
#19 ·
Thanks for the info. James is beautiful for sure, can be tough as well, only kind to me 25% of the times Ive been there. Hard to put it in scale in the pictures, but Id take those Wally any day out there on James.... bummer to lose them, but hopefully it is a drop in the "bucket." In numbers, a couple hundred kill is a whole lot better than the thousands... like Lake Norman and the striper.
 
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