Dec 032009
Walleye, White Bass, Drum, and Channel Catfish washed up on shore following the Lake Puckaway fish kill
It will take some time to come up with true estimates on numbers but they are in the thousands at the moment
Lake Puckaway is located in Wisconsin, though I’m from there I’ve never fished any of the central part of the state – I’ve mostly stuck to the western rivers. Anyway – how’d it happen?
Leading theories connect the fish kill with the recent carp netting. Puckaway has been netted to reduce carp numbers for decades now – as a hope to reduce competition with natives, well – native game fish (many people can’t even tell the difference between native roughfish and carp).
The ironic part? Due lazy harvest practices by the commerical fishermen – the gamefish that were supposed to be “helped” by this project were killed. The other ironic part? check out the pictures below and tell me what looks weird about them…
If you have your secret decoder roughfish ID glasses on (or even mediocre fish ID skills) its pretty obvious that almost all (if not all) those fish are native Bigmouth Buffalo – that’s right, they didn’t even put a dent in the carp population. They just damaged populations of native species…
EVERYONE - even walleye-yankers should be pissed for many reasons, see below:
1. Big duh – Gamefish that were supposed to be helped were killed
2. Few carp were killed – the actual goal of this thing
3. The buffalo were carted off the lake in live trucks (see above) breaking state law (see next for why this is so bad)
4. The waters are infected with VHS disease – it seems that this kind of stuff “magically” spreads when fish are carted around alive
5. The crew was paid (using tax-payer dollars) for this – not a big deal if it weren’t for:
6. Buffalo commands the among the highest prices (if not the highest) of commercially harvested freshwater fish in the country. That’s right, these guys would have made a killing even if the DNR hadn’t paid them. Greedy bastards (this is why you don’t see carp in the boat – they aren’t worth much on the market)
7. The lake is under severe warnings from PCB contamination in the fish – those buffs are being sold for food – so think twice before eating that Mc-Fish-Sandwich…
8. Oh, end of course - buffalo are an important part of the natural ecosystem – not everyone gets this one but some of us value it…
This whole thing kinda reminds me of:
(yes those are skulls of American Bison – aka Buffalo)
greed, corruption, and ineptitude at its finest. Gotta love the American way. BOHICA
Yep. The only silver lining is that the DNR will almost certainly come down hard on this crew.
Given the number of dead, large, female walleyes – there'll be a riot if they don't.