Eagle Lake

The cause of death of all this fish on the videos was not ice fishing! The cause of death was when water was high,fish was trying to escape the lake and stock between narrow metal bars of the dam and die.

Yes, the fish on the right was a large Walleye, probably pushing 30", same with one in the middle of the grouping.  On the grate was primarily small crappies, a lot of good sized northerns, and a few Walleye.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but in the center of the grate was a very large fish that appeared to be a Walleye.  Most of the fish were big enough where I wouldn't have thought the current would be an issue, unless they waited too late to try and swim away.  Most were relatively fresh too, so I wouldn't think it was the result of ice fishing.

The actual fishing that day was not great, a few bites and one nice bass.  I didn't really expect much being so early in the year, I just wanted to get on the water.

I’m sure the Bluegills, Crappies and Walleyes in the pictures were a result of negligent fish handling during the ice fishing season too. (LOL)
None of these fish have been dead since before the ice went out 2 months ago. If that was the case there would be fish going through different stages of decomposition.
These fish died as a result of getting caught up in the stronger current created by the dam. It happens on all bodies of water that have the same situation. The only difference is that all lakes with a dam don’t necessarily have the grate to keep debris from washing over the dam.

Tyyak -
Your explanation for the dead pike is correct.  I ice-fish Wind Lake frequently and see many 26-30 inch pike on the ice.  Many had been gut hooked with blood all over and some with ripped out gills.  At Eagle Lake with a higher size limit, similar pike would go back to die under the ice.  The problem with using minnows for pike in the winter is aggravated by the time it takes the ice-fisher to get to the tip-up (unlike open water fishing with minnows).  Come on folks, use circle hooks on your tip-ups.  They lip hook fish most of the time.
Wally

Looks like a good size Walleye on the far right of the shoreline picture and a few Crappies and Bluegills in the picture of the spillway grate. 

Is that Fish to the far right and maybe even one other of the fish is a big walleye? 

Tyyak - Your explanation for this should be on the “Joke of the Day” thread on the General Discussion page.

pike are more susceptible to dye offs, but no reason that would happen this winter. Most likely just fish from tip up fishing, which causes a lot of dead pike. As long as the bass are ?alright I don’t mind. Eagle need a ?little ?pike culling

Remember hearing of a Northern Pike kill off at Lake Geneva a while back . Was blamed on excessive weed killers and fertilizers used by lakefront home owners and commercial beach and lawn weed control companies ! Hope its not from someone or company dumping hazard fluids in Lake, or incoming streams to Lake ? 

This is terrible!! What cause of it?? We need to call fishing biologist immediately!!