By Scott “Coach” Stankowski
Senior Outdoors Writer
July 11, 2012
Photo courtesy Fountain Lake Sportsmen’s Club
A dead northern pike is found in the channel between Fountain Lake and Albert Lea lakes Saturday.
Stevens Point–I am afraid the recent Northern Pike die off that is happening across the state is going to be a sign of the times. Several area lakes are reporting die offs of the toothy predator fish including the Big Eau Pleine, Lake Puckaway, Poygan and Partridge Crop. Most of the fish being reported are top echelon on the food chain as fish over 40 inches are being reported. The good news– if there is any– is that the ‘hammer handle’ fish in the 20” range are being spared.
Does this mean that all of the efforts put forth to protect these fish by increasing size limits have been for naught? Not completely, but the recent die-off certainly did not help. DNR officials are optimistic that this fish kill did not wipe out all of the big pike. It is not just happening in Wisconsin, either. Google ‘Northern Pike die off’ and you will find the same events happening in Minnesota.
So why is this happening? Officials are not exactly sure, but believe it is because of recent warm weather. The Northern Pike is a cold-water fish. Normal surface water temperatures this time of the year average around the low 80s with temps warming up slightly on a hot, sunny day. Recently, water temperatures at the surface were reported as warm as 92 degrees. Local residents with swimming pools have been unable to utilize their pools to cool off in the heat as those temperatures have reached the mid to upper 90s. In shallow lakes, these water temperatures, especially on sunny, windy days mix throughout the lake, bringing the warm water everywhere. If a lake is deep or has cold-water springs in it, the fish can still find cold water. If the lake is deep enough, the water will stratify, leaving a layer of cold water underneath the warm water. This may be 7- feet deep or more during a year like this. That combination is deadly on the large northern pike population. If you are thinking that this is a prime opportunity this time of the year to find big fish in cold water, you are right, the fish are probably concentrated up on rivers and lakes bringing a unique fishing opportunity perhaps. The problem is, if the fish are already stressed out, they are not interested in feeding, they are interested in staying cool and surviving, and any extra movement will increase their body temperature.
The problem does not look to me like it is going to go away. You can call it what you want, but to me the base of this is global warming. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Association has recorded the past 12 months as the warmest on record since modern records have been kept. Compound that with the recent drought, and you have a recipe for disaster that will not just be held to a single species of fish. Governor Walker has just declared a state of emergency for 42 of our counties. Now farmers can utilize lake and stream water to try and save their crops. This in itself will not help the fish population, but what are we to do? The answer is social as well as global. Each individual has to work on making a smaller ecological footprint on the earth. That means relying less on the luxuries that we have grown accustomed to and going back to green. When I was a kid, people complained less about the heat because there wasn’t air conditioning at every turn, there wasn’t bottled water, pre-made dinners in a box and ten pairs of shoes in every closet. Want to know how to blame for this? Find a mirror, and take a good, hard look.
Until next time,
Shoot straight
