Fish swimming close to surface of ice.

Stryker2 · #1 02-14-2015, 01:40 PM

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 · #2 02-14-2015, 02:16 PM

Quote:

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 · #3 02-14-2015, 02:46 PM

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 · #4 02-14-2015, 02:47 PM

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

ATF · #5 02-14-2015, 03:34 PM

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 · #6 02-14-2015, 03:49 PM

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.

TROLLER · #7 02-14-2015, 04:09 PM

Lot of times that is where they are getting the fresh water swrimp

huntsfurfish · #8 02-14-2015, 04:33 PM

later in winter(varies with individual water bodies), can have low O2 near bottom and can get fish rising off bottom. Sometimes accompanied by murkiness for several feet or more.

Moefoe · #9 02-14-2015, 04:34 PM

^^^Yup Shrimp and Backswimmers routinely hang out just under the ice...Whites and Trout use the ice to chow down!!

waiting41 · #10 02-14-2015, 04:53 PM

Also was at la nonne a few days back.......seen all species cruising just below the ice, and not a single fish all day on the bottem, strange. Gonna go back this week and have another look....

omega50 · #11 02-14-2015, 05:08 PM

Back in Manitoba when I was a kid Dad use to bring ice skates for us kids when there was no snow on the ice. He would sit on a bucket and drink a beer or two while he sent us out scouting in all directions. If we saw a fish under the ice we would drop a willow switch on that spot.
After 2 or 3 beers he would call us in and ask where most of the switches were.
And that was where we would set up and start chiselling holes.
No flies on pop.
He had managed to burn off our exuberant energy so we weren't asking too many questions. He has time to enjoy a few beers before we started snagging and losing tackle and we usually were quite successful in our scouting.

Bigwoodsman · #12 02-14-2015, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omega50

Back in Manitoba when I was a kid Dad use to bring ice skates for us kids when there was no snow on the ice. He would sit on a bucket and drink a beer or two while he sent us out scouting in all directions. If we saw a fish under the ice we would drop a willow switch on that spot.
After 2 or 3 beers he would call us in and ask where most of the switches were.
And that was where we would set up and start chiselling holes.
No flies on pop.
He had managed to burn off our exuberant energy so we weren't asking too many questions. He has time to enjoy a few beers before we started snagging and losing tackle and we usually were quite successful in our scouting.

Your Dads a smart man!

BW

Crankbait · #13 02-14-2015, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Lot of times that is where they are getting the fresh water swrimp

x 100

Stryker2 · #14 02-14-2015, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omega50

Back in Manitoba when I was a kid Dad use to bring ice skates for us kids when there was no snow on the ice. He would sit on a bucket and drink a beer or two while he sent us out scouting in all directions. If we saw a fish under the ice we would drop a willow switch on that spot.
After 2 or 3 beers he would call us in and ask where most of the switches were.
And that was where we would set up and start chiselling holes.
No flies on pop.
He had managed to burn off our exuberant energy so we weren't asking too many questions. He has time to enjoy a few beers before we started snagging and losing tackle and we usually were quite successful in our scouting.

Great story LOL! Love it!

Smart man he was!

Stryker2 · #15 02-15-2015, 07:03 PM

We spent the entire morning today drilling holes (about 15-20) all over at Lac La Nonne and all of them were devoid of fish. All we saw was dead fish at the bottom. I included a pic. Something real strange is going on there!

Donkey Oatey · #16 02-15-2015, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stryker2

We spent the entire morning today drilling holes (about 15-20) all over at Lac La Nonne and all of them were devoid of fish. All we saw was dead fish at the bottom. I included a pic. Something real strange is going on there!

Lac la Nonne is prone to winter kill in areas. Low oxygen caused by huge algae blooms in the warm weather. Real problem with the shallow, warm lakes.

Mike_W · #17 02-15-2015, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stryker2

We spent the entire morning today drilling holes (about 15-20) all over at Lac La Nonne and all of them were devoid of fish. All we saw was dead fish at the bottom. I included a pic. Something real strange is going on there!

Did you drop a hook down for a size comparison those look like minnows that have fallen off hooks to me.

Alberta Bigbore · #18 02-15-2015, 07:49 PM

Quote:

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 · #19 02-15-2015, 07:53 PM

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

Stryker2 · #20 02-15-2015, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike_W

Did you drop a hook down for a size comparison those look like minnows that have fallen off hooks to me.

If in fact they were fallen minnows there must've been lots of fallen minnows because every fresh hole we drilled had a bunch!

Stryker2 · #21 02-15-2015, 08:25 PM

Wow! Nice Perch! I guess we should've been fishing at your end of the lake! We went on ice from the south boat launch and drilled all around the weed island where I had seen perch last week. Nothing! Then continued drilling all the way to Connie Mae's boat launch where there was a bunch of people by THAT weed point still not one fish! I mean we didn't just put the camera down the hole we actually flashed a lure down to attract anything that might be within reasonable distance, nothing! Just saw a bunch of fish or minnows?? dead on bottom. And we didn't see anyone else getting all excited catching anything and there were lots of women and kids, you'd think we would've heard the screaming! LOL!

Penner · #22 02-16-2015, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stryker2

We spent the entire morning today drilling holes (about 15-20) all over at Lac La Nonne and all of them were devoid of fish. All we saw was dead fish at the bottom. I included a pic. Something real strange is going on there!

Not a good sign.

58thecat · #23 02-16-2015, 06:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omega50

Back in Manitoba when I was a kid Dad use to bring ice skates for us kids when there was no snow on the ice. He would sit on a bucket and drink a beer or two while he sent us out scouting in all directions. If we saw a fish under the ice we would drop a willow switch on that spot.
After 2 or 3 beers he would call us in and ask where most of the switches were.
And that was where we would set up and start chiselling holes.
No flies on pop.
He had managed to burn off our exuberant energy so we weren't asking too many questions. He has time to enjoy a few beers before we started snagging and losing tackle and we usually were quite successful in our scouting.

No hi-tech gridgets there just a lot of smarts!

Duster · #24 02-16-2015, 06:42 AM

2 yrs ago on a big southern reservoir where i put my shack. I was sitting down tinkering with something and i herd a gurgle come from one of my holes across the shack. I kinda stopped what i was doing for a second to listen, the sound went away. About 5 mins later the sound was back. So i peaked down my holr andthere was a nice burb gurgling in the top of my hole. Thought that was very weird. So i shoved my hearing in his face he kinda back out slowly and cranked my bait. Pull it in, theres supper. Couple weeks later it happened again, same thing. It ended up happening 3 times to me that yr and twice to my buddy in his shack. I thought it was really weird for a big deep reservoir.

Duster · #25 02-16-2015, 06:44 AM

Im saying baro pressure as well causes this

Habfan · #26 02-16-2015, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stryker2

We spent the entire morning today drilling holes (about 15-20) all over at Lac La Nonne and all of them were devoid of fish. All we saw was dead fish at the bottom. I included a pic. Something real strange is going on there!

The fish in the middle looks like a small whitefish ! I have burbs come up the ice fishing hole in a shack more than once, but it was at dark and I thought they were investigating the light in the shack. I've seen whites, burbs, trout, and the odd pike up below the surface, but never walleye and perch, and I've been ice fishing for 45 yrs. All the eyes and perch I saw this weekend were on the bottom !!

wind drift · #27 02-16-2015, 08:22 AM

Oxygen depletion occurs against the sediments and progresses upwards over winter. If fish are just under the ice, it means they are likely restricted from deeper water by low oxygen.

YeeHaw · #28 02-16-2015, 11:50 PM

A Co worker said he had a burb come out of the hole the other day.

huntsfurfish · #29 02-17-2015, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wind drift

Oxygen depletion occurs against the sediments and progresses upwards over winter. If fish are just under the ice, it means they are likely restricted from deeper water by low oxygen.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^this

cube · #30 02-17-2015, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YeeHaw

A Co worker said he had a burb come out of the hole the other day.

Having burbs coming up a hole at this time of the year is not that rare. It is not uncommon at the beginning of the spawn esp for them to swim up and have a look.

The fish swimming at the top and dead fish on the bottom is not a good sign, especially since we have allot of ice cover left this winter.

Have never seen fish come to the top because of barometric pressure change. Sure would make netting them in the summer an easy task, would just have to wait for a low pressure to come in then go out there and just scoop them in if that were true.