(Des Moines, IA) -- The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has received numerous reports of dead fish in lakes and ponds across Iowa as the ice melts. The DNR says winter fish kills are common on Iowa shallow lakes during long winters with lots of snow cover and less oxygen is in the water for fish.
The DNR says in certain lakes, including Rathbun, Black Hawk, Storm and Coralville, these dead fish are often a source of food for channel catfish that will go on a feeding spree. Many anglers see this as an early season fishing opportunity for trophy-sized channel catfish.
“Winter kills are rarely complete kills. We get a lot of calls from farm pond owners who think they lost all of their fish in their pond to winter kill,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the fisheries bureau for the Iowa DNR. “Our advice to them is to fish the pond in the spring, note the species, number and size of what you catch and talk to their local fisheries biologist about the health of the pond.”
DNR fisheries staff are watching lakes and ponds with low oxygen levels that are at risk of having a winter fish kill. Many Iowa lakes and ponds are still under ice, so additional smaller, shallow ponds and lakes might have winter kills after the ice disappears.