Sorry to hear that, I have not got alot of knowledge about fish and frozen lakes ,just a thought are you sure it is the Ice that is causing the problem?

wheres this micky sounds drastic

Is it Duttons Mikey ???

Kinnel Mikey ! Well done fella ~clap ~clap ~clap

Hope Karl makes a speedy recovery …. Proper angler.

If it aint the cormorants then this happens !!!

I have a large hole in the big lake where the fountain is, but all the other pools here are frozen over.
1 fry pool is thick enough to walk on, and i could see the fish under the ice untill this snow came.

I have a JCB, i think i will go around tomorrow and break all the pools. (16!)

Cheers Mikey.

its tragic when i was doing my fisheries management and fish husbandry thro liverpool uni the good doctor lecturer mentioned that during a severe winter and reletivly shallow lake/pool and high silt levels its possible to loose 60% or more of your stock i have been on netting operations during the depths of winter and had large retuns of dead fish

Out of interest, why did the EA say to leave them? Did they give a reason? I would expect them to know what they are talking about and hence give out good advice that is in the interest of fish welfare.

Or am I being naive?

sorry to here this mikey dont know it not my side of town
ive only heard of this happening once before at gorsty hall 3/4 years ago that was put down to nitrate run off from the newly contructed golf course that ajoins it wierd sight the water and ice turned pea green

At a guess I’d say there’s a human being welfare issue here.

Striding out onto a frozen lake to bang holes in it to give fish oxygen may preserve fish stocks – but may also lead to serious consequences.

theres not been a desperate missguided soul trying to keep his pleasure peg free with antifreeze has there lol
all the waters my side of town are under 6in with 10in of snow on top

They are saying its even colder than 1963 in Manchester now Mikey, first time i have ever seen the Manchester Ship Canal frozen over !!!! People i speak too around the country seriously cant believe how bad the snow and ice is here ……. its UNREAL !!!! Minus 16 last night !!!!

Karl didnt trip over his wallet did he ? lol

Good point, Fordy.

MJ, my experience of the EA is that they do not understand FISHING as a sport, but I have found that they can usually give an informed response on matters relating to fish welfare. I am baffled as to why the EA would say “don’t break the ice” if there is clear evidence that breaking the ice would be in the best interests of fish welfare.

Problem is Mikey, lots of people forget to respect nature in situations like this.

One mistake, and it could be all over.

Ice breakers – no worries.

Waders, axes and walking on ice…insanity.

minus 11 at man airport prob froze over again faster than you cooled down lol but good effort

I’ve seen this a couple of times only quite some time ago, once at a place called Straight Mile Fishery and the other at Kiveton Hall Farm both in South Yorkshire. Both suffered heavy losses at the time but glad to say they recovered over time to become good fisheries.
Well done Mikey for your efforts hopefully helping to save the fish stocks, bet it was freezing in there been in lakes when frozen and come out not knowing that you have cut or hurt yourself as its too cold to feel anything.

And the Anti`s say fishermen don`t care about fish welfare? Well done Mikey, you deserve a medal~clap

I don`t dragging up the past but remember this thread.
https://www.total-fishing.com/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=15849

we had this happen years ago now top of our lake looked like silver paper so many fish stuck in it.sad.well done mate.

a up mikey. good work sir, is duttons a commercial???? the reason i ask is i took my dogs for a walk around the local lakes near my house which are a natural water and i must admit i couldnt see any dead fish etc and was wondering if this problem might only happen on densely stocked venues???

just to let you know me an mikey DID NOT walk on any ice we broke it from in the water which is only 3 to 4 feet deep in the edges. all our hard work today has paid off though i think for the moment. ~clap

EH UP WAYNE ~clap ~clap ~clap LOL

Well done fella,

Is karl ok ? ~think

Ps Did you find any rigs for Kerry ??? lol

yeh karls fine mate i called him before an said if u see a bright light tonight walk towards it lol
no no rigs. my hands are red raw an cracking up now though from today

@wayne2009 wrote:

yeh karls fine mate i called him before an said if u see a bright light tonight walk towards it lol
no no rigs. my hands are red raw an cracking up now though from today

Ok mate nice one ~clap ~clap

PM sent Wayne

Sorry to have to say, but if the fish are still gasping, chance of survival for a lot of them is slim – I hope I am wrong, especially after your efforts.

Hopefully, there are other underlying causes here, otherwise, we would surely be hearing other reports from other fisheries, especially commercials? Our fish farm ponds have been under ice for three weeks or so in the past with no problems and they are very densley stocked

a mate has a pond in his garden…do we or dont we smash the ice – prob be in the edges though.

I am sure I remember someone saying you shouldn’t ‘smash’ the ice in your pond, as it gives the fish too much of a shock. If you do want to melt the ice to create a hole, I think I have been informed previously that pouring warm water on to it is the best way to do it.

I’m not an expert on this, though!

I think the problem is the silt and the gasses it gives off. The ice means it cannot escape so I guess it would dissolve into the water, causing problems.

On a lake with a ‘clean’ bottom I doubt there’ll be many problems. The fish will be shoaled up and pretty dormant at the moment, ticking over until spring. The ice may even improve things, not only does it stop the wind ‘mixing’ up the layers of cold/warm water. it will stop cormorants feeding and the snow on top will act as an insulating blanket.

Just my thoughts.

J

Found this on the web

****:FISH SMOTHER UNDER ICE

Lakes and streams breathe the same as living things. When they are
covered with ice and snow they cannot get air and they much hold their
breath until the ice thaws. While they are holding their breath the
oxygen in the water is gradually used up by the living things sealed up
in it — fish, plants “bugs”, snails, and hosts of microscopic life. If the
ice lasts long enough, these living things die one after another as each
kind reaches the point where it cannot stand any further oxygen
starvation. Sometimes temporary relief is given by rains and melting
snow that bring fresh, serated water under the ice, but no method of
artificial respiration has been found that works. Sometimes, too, when
water plants get enough sunlight through clear ice they produce small
amounts of oxygen and delay the suffocation of the fish, etc.; but when
snow and cloudy ice cuts off the light this does not happen.

On December 8, all of the sloughs, ponds, streams and small lakes in
the Cook County forest preserves froze over tight. Two days later this
was followed by almost a foot of snow. Since then the ice has frozen
thicker and thicker, and several more heavy snows have fallen. For
eight weeks there have been no rains or snows to bring in oxygen, and
the fish in most of these waters are already dead or dying.

During the last half of January, inspections were made through holes
chopped in the ice and in occasional bits of open water at dams. We
found large numbers of dead fish of all common kinds. At the
McGinnis Slough Waterfowl Refuge near Orland Park, which has 314
acres of shallow water, numbers of black bullheads and golden shiners
were found dead, but no live fish of any kinds. Since these species will
live with less oxygen than most fish, it is presumed that the kill is
practically complete and may reach 100 tons. As many as 50 tons may
have died in the 190 acres of water in the Skokie Lagoons in the
northeastern corner of the county, although a few are still finding
enough oxygen to stay alive where a little water pours over the low
dams that separate the lagoons. Here the main part of the kill was
good-sized largemouth bass, crappies and bluegills, along with
moderate numbers of large carp. The kill in the DesPlaines River also
seems to be practically complete. At Dam No. 1, near Wheeling, large
numbers of medium-sized carp are being hauled away for chicken and
hog feed, while a flock of herring gulls feed on those that are not frozen
solid. No dead fish have been found in 55-acre Maple Lake near
Willow Springs, probably because it is deeper and its oxygen reserves
are greater.
~think

its shocking to hear this! well done to the lads up there for doing something about this! top blokes. what is more shocking is that the environment agency do not know how to deal with problems like this! i would of thought they are paid to know this kind of thing! we have enough problems in angling loosing our fish to poloution, otters, cormarants and people eating them! without loseing because of misguided information by people who should know! i would of thought they should be aware of problems like this and make people aware of what to do!

its more of a 30 peg lake than a pond. He is in hospital so me and a mate are gonna go smash some holes in it…i have a lump hammer on a chain tied to some rope and we have scaffolding tubes.

not sure if I’ve heard it right on the news two people have died going through the ice and a three is very ill in hospital

yes two died walking on ice over a lake

There were pictures on the local news of kids playing on the ice in the middle of drayton res earlier today!!!!!

Just seen it on the news, 4 middle aged men walked out 40 odd yards on the ice to scatter ashes???

@Mikey .J. wrote:

UPDATE.

Today we have had a JCB out and a generator and pump. The fish are looking miles better and there’s a lot less gasping for air. They’re just sitting still in the areas we have broken. This is a daily job as it’s so cold the ice quickly refreezes without the pump running. This has undoubtedly saved a lot of fish and i’d recommend you do this BEFORE you have a problem and not once it’s already occurred. We have lost many cracking fish.

good job mikey~clap ~clap just be carefull mate i lost a good friend being a hero and trying to get a dog out of a lake

Yes, Take care Mikey and Wayne …. great work fellas ~clap ~clap ~clap Lets hope the cormorants dont have a feast now !!!

Just to clarify ….. The lad who was with Mikey and Wayne and taken away by ambulance whilst trying to save these fish was Karl Webster who has several Parkdean finals under his belt ! ~clap ~clap

mike i think he will get enough stick without posting on here mate and lets face it it could have been alot worse the state he was in

i know it was roger i might try mate but not sure there probably wont be anything goin on down there though they seem to get bored easily on that pond

im gonna try an go down when i can today mate i struggle on a sat though but lives must be saved an some extreme fishing must be done i cant say ive caught many 10lb carp by hand oh and perch

oh the digger is still down there its on jeffs drive so people will be on breaking today dave m will be on the digger all day i recon

I only put Karls name up cos he is a Red ~naughty ~naughty lol

Has this thread turned into MSN now ? lmao

Our club water is a 5 acre natural lake that like all others, has around 5 – 6 inches of ice plus a good layer of snow on it. Its really worrying that in a months time we could be looking at a huge fish loss, it would be heartbreaking.

I can’t really see any other way forward but to wait it out, we wouldn’t be able to access the pool to get a JCB to break the ice and at 5 inches plus, I doubt that we’ll be able to make much of an impact with ice breakers.

We’ve had more snow overnight and temperatures are still at zero degrees – who knows when the water will be thawed!!

The weather should be taking a big turn later this week and fingers crossed all the ice should gone or well on it’s way by the weekend.

Hi Guys,
A few of our lads went to our club pool on Sunday and smashed the ice around the margins of the pool, the ice was 4-6 inches thick sledge hammers axes and wrecking bars were the order of the day and then we netted all the ice out. We never saw any fish dead or in distress so fingers crossed that we don’t have a problem.
A big thanks to Mikey for making everyone aware of the potential problems, we would have just waited for the ice to melt and we could have been faced with a disaster as we couln’t afford to replace the fish if we had lost them.

Yes thanks a lot Mikey for letting everyone know, it certainly got me worried about one the venues i fish often and because of what you reported i went down there and broke the ice as much as i could. Just got to hope we don’t get a fish kill as everywhere else it would be heartbreaking if that happened.

It’s not a well known fact this but Mikey is the Dr Dolittle of the piscatorial world, rumour has it he can communicate with fish…and behind his above average sized ears he conceals a pair of gills.

stop being cruel rik

He’s a big lad John, just a bit of banter.

you told me he was vertically challenged lol

got home from work today to be told all my fish had died
i looked in the garden pond with fish lying everywhere withno water and the sheet of ice lying in the bottom of the pond
there was a slight niose i broke the ice with loads more fish in the same way
got me net and handle out thinking of seperateing the dead fish from what looked like 1 or 2 fish that might be alive
i netted every fish and each one started moveing not one had died
i noticed after the leads pulled and think the dog must have got caught up with them the filter was lying on the floor and the pump had drained the pond
the fish were out of the last few inches of water with there mouths in the water
think ive been very lucky the pump will now be on a shelf

whalley hall park in croxteth liverpool has had people there for the last two days breaking the ice and removing all the dead fish, there was pictures and a write up in the yesterdays liverpool echo!!!!

PMSL!

Just saw the post on MD’S for the Liverpool park lake and would be devestated if our pool ending looking like that with loads of quality fish dead. I hope that we have been lucky as we only boke the ice last Sunday.