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Iowa Lakes Show Little Impact From Long Winter Posted 10 July 2008 The Iowa Department of Natural Resources' fisheries biologists recently completed fish population surveys of lakes at risk from winter kills and found most had less impact than originally feared. Meyers Lake, in Black Hawk County, and Silver Lake, in Delaware County, each suffered significant winterkill events following near record snowfalls during 2007-08. The purpose of these netting and electro-fishing surveys was to determine if fishable populations still existed in these lakes or if stocking would be necessary to reestablish fish populations. Fish populations in Meyers Lake were found to be in good condition with decent numbers of adult bluegill, largemouth bass, black crappie, white crappie and black bullhead. These adult fish will spawn this year and will provide good numbers of fish going into the fall, so restocking will not be necessary at Meyers Lake. On the other hand, fish populations at Silver Lake in Delaware County were found to be in poor condition with only a few adult bluegills captured in nets. Restocking has already begun when 3,500 fingerling largemouth bass were stocked during the last week of June. Channel catfish will be restocked as fish become available in the fall. A single female adult bluegill is capable of having several thousand offspring in a single year, so restocking of bluegill will not be necessary at Silver Lake. Given good water conditions, we should see fishable populations of bluegill and bass return to Silver Lake within two years. Silver Lake in Delaware County is currently experiencing higher than average water levels and good water clarity, which means that there is abundant prey available for fish and growth rates should be fast. It takes about two years for bluegill to reach 6.5 inches in Iowa and about three years to reach 7 inches, so expect good fishing in Silver Lake about two years from this fall. Many other lakes across northern Iowa that were feared impacted to severe winter fish kills were found to have only limited kills. Little Swan Lake, Ingham, Silver Lake at Ayrshire all came through the winter in good shape with fish kill was limited to mostly rough fish. Mike Hawkins, fisheries biologist at Spirit Lake, said he added extra northern pike to a handful of lakes in his area shortly after ice out in anticipation of a winter kill. After putting the shocking boat in, Hawkins said he found little impacts of a winter kill. "Those northern pike will still do well in the lakes and will show up in a few years," he said. He said he will add a few extra walleye fingerlings to Silver Lake in Palo Alto County, but will allow the adult bluegill, bass, crappie, yellow perch and channel catfish to fill the void naturally through spawning. The story was nearly the same at other north Iowa lakes from the Mississippi to the Big Sioux. Other than a lake here and there, the feared across the board winter fish kills didn't happen.

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