Low Water Affects

[jrsmith_80]

Here in Kansas our rivers and lakes are extremely low. One of the lakes closest to me that I fish regularly has been shut down due to blue green algae and also because it's just to low to allow boats on the water.

I have a little housing development pond across the street from my house that always produces a decent catch. We got a rain that filled it back up and ever since the water level went way down the fishing has been horrible.

My question is, what affects will these low water conditions have on the fish when the water level returns to normal?

[fishking247]

not so much the affect on when it returns. it's more about the affect it has now. low water can mean low oxygen levels which causes fish death

[NEjitterbugger]

Fishking took the words out of my mouth.

[WRB]

It depends on 2 factors 1. The temperature of the water before and after a sudden increase in water level.

2. The DO and PH of the water.

LMB can't survive a sudden water temperature change that is more than 10 degrees, unless they can more ro water within that temperature range. Rain water is low in DO (dissolved oxygen) and low in PH, if the water was already low in both that can also shock the bass. When rain water flows into a lake as run off it picks up DO, the PH depends on the surrounding soil content. It is better for the bass if the water level rises slowly so they can adjust to the changes.

Tom

[mikey5string]

Low water affects the water level which has an effect on the bass.

[Bluebasser86]

It's been a rough summer in KS for sure. One of my local lakes has limited cover, most of it is shoreline weeds in the form of water willows. The water dropped so fast this spring that most of those weeds were high and dry by late May. The end result was a loss of almost all shoreline cover and a lot of deep, suspended, tough to catch bass.

Smaller ponds get very low oxygen levels when the water drops and there isn't any rain for months and stresses the fish a lot. Other than maybe losing some fish from the low oxygen levels it shouldn't have an effect once the water comes up other than maybe having some new cover in the form of all the vegetation that has been able to grow along the shoreline with the water being down.

[Bankbeater]

I have seen two fish kills in different lakes when the water was low, and both of them were right after a heavy rain. Really makes you sad to see all of those fish belly up.