Strange Occurrence At Nimrod Lake!

[slabbandit]

Noticed dead and dying fish all over Nimrod lake today. Mostly near the deeper river channel. Lots of small 8 to 9 inch black crappie. Netted a few and they flopped in the net but didn't revive in the livewell. Picked up a few bream and they did fine. Livewell was pretty warm though. Saw a 3 lb cat dead and several 3/4 lb white crappie that looked like they had been dead for a day or two and had already been eaten on.
I said we probably wouldn't get a bite but found aggressive feeding crappie at both places that we stopped. These were brushpiles located up on the shallower flats. Seen absolutely no dead or dying shad and saw plenty of shad balls about 5 feet deep.
All weekend I had noticed a definite thermocline only in the river channel at a depth of 15 to 17 feet. Well, today I went out over the channel and couldn't see a definite thermocline at all.
I thought that the turnover only happened in the fall. Anybody got any thoughts??

[Lkconwayguru]

Wow that water looks a little more brackish than I remember, been years since I been there. It could be a virus or something as simple as a drop in the dissolved oxygen levels. It could bE just summer time heat and oxygen levels combined.

[RCC]

It looks like a turnover. I thought it happened twice a year in the process of heating up and cooling down. Here is a quote from anothe site on turnover.

A lake in turnover is very turbid or murky. It is not uncommon to have good success at a lake one weekend and return the next weekend to find less than 30 centimetres of visibility. The water will be filled with all kinds of plant matter floating, and the fishing will be poor. Surface winds cause the lake to mix from top to bottom. This results in mixing of oxygenated and un-oxygenated water and release of other gases that affect fish physiology.

Maybe it won't last long.

[Crappie Greg]

Will be down there Saturday am, hope it's nothing major!

[NIMROD]

Dead fish floating everywhere today. Water looks murky, I figure a turn over. Most of the dead fish are Crappie. I figure it will slow Crappie fishing to a certain degree. I went out and baited Catfish holes .

[G.Gordon]

I went out and baited Catfish holes with dead crappie .

Fixed. No charge.

[NIMROD]

Fixed. No charge.

I don't think even a Catfish will eat a bloated Crappie.

[NIMROD]

Will be down there Saturday am, hope it's nothing major!

Better hurry cause they won't float long in this heat!

[WW_]

Latest word from G&F on the small fish kill here on Nimrod this week is that after testing a sampling of the fish the fish were given a preliminary clean bill of health, other than being dead...

Although a couple of more tests on the fish are being conducted that will take a few more days to complete, judging from preliminary tests nothing out of the ordinary is expected to be found. Also tests showed there is was no oxygen below 12 feet in the open area of the lake where the fish were found.

At this point, according to G&F biologists the preliminary cause of the kill looks to be poor water quality, although I'm not sure yet what's in their definition of poor water quality that will kill some fish while others survive. Whatever the case, district biologists will issue an official report after all the data is in and has been analyzed.

But until further notice, which may be years from now, or even never come, it's strongly recommended that nobody fish for or catch any more crappie out of Nimrod Lake who doesn't live here around the lake or aren't from Yell County who have been able to eat fresh Nimrod crappie on a daily basis and have built up a tolerance to whatever it is that's ailing Nimrod's big slab crappie....

[xring]

Today I went down the arkansas river, from the dardanelle bridge to the flag lake cutoff..I fished in water from inches to 18 ft. I caught zero crappie, I did catch a rather large drum, three small black bass and two whites schooling. I saw one smallish copperhead and one large water snake trying to swallow a fish of unknown species. The river got a little rough after noon, it was wasted effort as far as the fishing went...I may have to take dip net to nimrod to get a mess of fish.