Fish swimming close to surface of ice.

[Stryker2]

If the fish are swimming close to the surface of the ice in 9 or 10 FOW does that really mean that the lake is lacking in oxygen? I saw that at La Nonne last week and I have a hard time believing that it would be winter killing as the depth of that lake is pretty good. There has to be another reason for the fish to be behaving that way? Does anyone know anything about that?? Please enlighten me!

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by Stryker2

If the fish are swimming close to the surface of the ice in 9 or 10 FOW does that really mean that the lake is lacking in oxygen? I saw that at La Nonne last week and I have a hard time believing that it would be winter killing as the depth of that lake is pretty good. There has to be another reason for the fish to be behaving that way? Does anyone know anything about that?? Please enlighten me!

Fish can swim where ever. Could be predators chasing good up.
If fish like pike are sticking their faces up the hole...that is bad.

[Adwittoutdoors]

I remember when I was a kid fishing out at pigeon lake the whites a lot of the time were right under the ice. Just looking for food. I don't think pigeon had an oxygen problem. I may be wrong though.

[CanadianBadass]

Barometric pressure also adds to this ! Fish will rise or lower as pressure changes !

[ATF]

perch or whitefish?
Perch under the ice is bad, whitefish no issues.
I've never heard La Nonne could even be close to a winter kill.

[Stryker2]

It was perch I saw swimming high up the water column, but the barometric pressure makes more sense to me as well. I honestly don't think Lac La Nonne is a candidate for winter killing. I read some guy made a comment on IFish about La Nonne winter killing because he saw the fish swimming below the ice surface. And I remembered seeing some as well last week, but I also saw the same thing at Lac Ste Anne a couple of days ago, so they can't be all winter killing! LOL! But I was curious about what everybody else thought.
Thanks for the responses.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Originally Posted by Stryker2

If the fish are swimming close to the surface of the ice in 9 or 10 FOW does that really mean that the lake is lacking in oxygen? I saw that at La Nonne last week and I have a hard time believing that it would be winter killing as the depth of that lake is pretty good. There has to be another reason for the fish to be behaving that way? Does anyone know anything about that?? Please enlighten me!

Today i didnt mark a perch at la nonne from 8.5 -27 fow...


Started marking a fish at 3 feet under the ice in 8.5 fow on the Vexilar.. thought was its whitefish... put a wire worm down and bam. 11.5 inch perch. Then the walleye came.......

[Alberta Bigbore]

Never caught a perch that close to the bottom of the ice before