mass amounts of dead bait

[2thdoc]

while we were out sat morning we went through about a half mile area of dead bait that went as far as we could see all around us. Just curious if anyone knows what would cause this.

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[Finders Keepers]

Most probably an upwelling/quick change in water temperature - baitfish are sensitive to such changes.

[jimski2]

It could be cold oxygen depleted waters from deep in the lake.

[ray koziatek]

friday nite commin in at sandy creek we saw 1000,s of baitfish swimmin on the surface wish i shut down and coasted over pod..

It was like a school of bait on the ocean with feeding fish under them.. but no dead ones floatin around..

[TOP SECRET]

We had the same thing at Sodus this weekend... An upwelling was my guess.. Heres one I scooped up..

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[LongLine]

Probably "down-welling". i.e. got hot quick. That's a smelt.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[Landshark]

it is rainbow smelt we had the same thing on eastern lake ontario, we netted some and checked them.

[shorething]

should have scooped em up took them home to some hot oil !

[kingslamon22]

i saw lots of smelt floating too but some of them looked like they were mauraded by a predator.

[TOP SECRET]

Could have been all the lakegulls working the area or steelies and other fish hitting them while they were dead as well. I know most of our bites last weekend came while trolling the area with the dead bait, so I'm guessing everything must have been feeding off of them at least somewhat.

[Misty IV]

We saw a ton of them floating Saturday off of Oswego during the LSR Challenge. It was really weird, as they appeared out of nowhere and were located in a small area covering about 1/2 mile. The seagulls were having a party!!! But, as we trolled through that area, the copper rods got busy!!!