A GREAT Reservoir Gone Bad!

[rrw4258]

I know that almost all of you have not herard of Bellevue, OH but i thought i would share what happened here in the past 24 hours...

I went fishing at Res. 4 last night during some mist and drizzle, and the bass fishing was at its best. I was fishing spinnerbaits and picked up 23 bass in an hour and a half....

I come back up there less than 24 hours later and there are 1000's of dead bass, bluegill, crappie, catfish, and northerns everywhere. I saw bass from 6" all the way up over 6 pounds, and some big 16 -18" crappie, along with a few small 15 - 20" northerns everywhere. So i decided to make a few casts and see what happened. Nothing, notta, zip hitting spinnerbaits, cranks, plastics, etc. anywhere.

So when i get home I call the ODNR in Huron County, and the officer told me they were out there this morning with the cops and sheriffs, and the mayor and there were dead fish floating up right and left. He also explained to me that it was probably low oxygen levels in the water, and that was killing them off.

Here's the thing with the lox oxygen level though... the past few years the city has drawn the level of this reservoir down about 40 feeet to about 3 to 4 feet of water in the bottom, and very few fish were killed off those years at all. This year it was only 2 -3 feet down from normal levels and many fish died.

The thing that got me was that it happened so quickly, literally overnight. I personally think that someone tampered with the water. The ODNR said they would run water tests. They also said theres nothing they can do becasue it is city owned water, not state owned. He said he told the mayor to start pumping oxygenated water back in, and the mayor replied with "that's probably not going to happen. The reservoir is only about 15-20 acres.

Ryan