Hennipin fish kill

[Illinoisgiller]

Yesterday afternoon I and my grandson Brandon Took my Osagain 18' canoe w/8 hp Mariner out on the Hennipin for a spring test run to make sure the motor was up and ready for the spring. We fished some among the brush and couldn't get any interest at all. When we left there, we happened to go by his dads workplace just as he was leaving . We decided to join him for a walk along the canal. From our higher viewing point along the bank ,we could see dead fish strewn all along the bottom. Sadly, I'm not talking a few. There were lots of gills at the largest size we ever get from the canal. There were a few live ones up along the north bank,but not in any numbers. I imagine that the heavy snow and shallow very slow moving water ran too low on oxygen. I sure hope we have not, for the most part ,lost this fishery. As time allows, I plan to check out more areas of the canal.
I also got to see what must be the last two ice fishermen in this area. When we showed up at Isaak Walton League Park to launch the canoe, there were two ice fishermen sitting up on the point on buckets. The ice looked terrible, but obviously held long enough to get them out there.:party0011::party0011:
Only one of the two boat ramps was free of ice. The canal is pretty much free of ice from there to Colona
I sure hated to have to report so many dead fish there as that section is easily accesable from my house by bicycle . Mike

[gofish]

thats a shame giller.....long as theres enough to spawn itll be back in a couple years though....perfect time ta do a lil "private" stocking/transplanting.:evilgrin0039:

[harpenter]

This thread makes me sick

[Illinoisgiller]

I called the Hennipin Canal Parkway office and talked with the fella in charge there. He had not had anyone else call about a problem yet.
He will send someone to check it out though. He did say the damage may be localized and due to the heavy snow.
I drove to most of the canal crossings between Colona and Atkinson yesterday. There was little sign of damage on any of the other areas, so not all is gloom and doom.
The fisheries bioligest said that as the water warms they will float and we will know the full extent of the damage, if any. Mike

[goofy]

That would be great news Sherry and I bicycled the canal last summer to the end and was impressed with how much it was utilized by children and seniors bank fishing. We will ride the Rockfalls arm this summer. We ride about twenty miles at a time and is quite relaxing and beautiful.

[Fishaholic]

keep us posted on that mike, doesnt sound good!!!
was this in the area of the izack walton park???

hey goofy youl be down in my parts you come riding in Rock falls

[Illinoisgiller]

Jason, The areas where I observed the problem was in the lower end of the same pool that Isaak Walton is on. Hopefully it is localized. Time will tell of course.:confused0024: Mike

[hnd]

the canal back behind erickson's was a great fishery when i was in highschool. every year there'd be winter kill but not horrible....to be honest it was mostly drum.

but when i was away at school apparently there was a bad winter kill one year...my brother took pics of it...and the place hasn't been the same since...

[Schoe]

Bad news about the Canal. That is a great fishery for anyone with the accessibility it has to offer.

The Canal is one of the first places I ever camped out for the weekend with some of my Jr. High buddies. What fun and experiences we had.

Hopefully the damage isn't as bad as it seems as their was a very big fish population in that stretch Mike saw, maybe too many, so we can hope it will bounce back and be resourceful once again.

The real shame here is that in the last 50 years I have witnessed the Canal going through a lot of changes with filling up with silt and muck, trees and trash.

It makes me sick every time I cross the bridge at Green Rock and look East on the Canal to where I once caught lots of fish as a kid. You couldn't begin to fish it now with all the trash and crap thats there in it's maybe 2 foot of water.

I don't know if it would do any good to contact our Politicians to see if there is a possibility of getting something done about what the Canal has evolved to in our area or not.

Northern and Southern Ill. seems to be where our tax dollars are spent the most on recreational resources. Schoe

[hnd]

Bad news about the Canal. That is a great fishery for anyone with the accessibility it has to offer.

The Canal is one of the first places I ever camped out for the weekend with some of my Jr. High buddies. What fun and experiences we had.

Hopefully the damage isn't as bad as it seems as their was a very big fish population in that stretch Mike saw, maybe too many, so we can hope it will bounce back and be resourceful once again.

The real shame here is that in the last 50 years I have witnessed the Canal going through a lot of changes with filling up with silt and muck, trees and trash.

It makes me sick every time I cross the bridge at Green Rock and look East on the Canal to where I once caught lots of fish as a kid. You couldn't begin to fish it now with all the trash and crap thats there in it's maybe 2 foot of water.

I don't know if it would do any good to contact our Politicians to see if there is a possibility of getting something done about what the Canal has evolved to in our area or not.

Northern and Southern Ill. seems to be where our tax dollars are spent the most on recreational resources. Schoe

down at the mouth on big island....there are places where it used to be 15-20 ft deep that are now 5-8 ft deep....dip your oar to the bottom and muck and silt com up too...its a real shame...

the crappie spot of mine back there used to be phenominal...is now just semi ok....

[heath19]

Ive only fished the canal once but i heard that two guys took 66 crappies out of it the day before easter by rock falls...i also heard they have been catching walleye and sauger by the dam in the canal in rock falls. ive only fished it once and i dont even know for sure where the dam is at...the guy said that they had a lot of them over 12" and several 14" crappies. the owner of todds tackle in thompson told me this...and as long as ive talked to him he has never told me a fish tale that ive know...im to hooked on the walleye at oregon to go try it myself though,lol.

[dipper69_2000]

chris i have fished the canal in that area for over30 years if they r catching crappies of that size i'll kiss there????????? lol there r good fish there n the walleyes n sauger r there but i have never caught a crappie over 11" there. i sometimes think ppl need to messure and weigh there fish. i have seen alot of 8 pound cats that wieghed 5 and alot of 12" crappies that measured 10 .....lol todd is a good guy for sure but he can only tell what he is told

[heath19]

yes, you are right on that one that he can only tell what he is told,lol. and ive heard plenty of fish tales myself of fish that were only half the size of what people claim,lol...they must have caught some crappies at least im guessing but i found it hard to believe myself that they caught that many and that size out of a canal that size..

[Illinoisgiller]

I called the Hennepin Canal Parkway office today for an update on the extent of the probable fish kill. They said it is still too early to know the full extent of the problem. When they investigated ,they did find a few bass, but not in any numbers. He said the water still needs to warm a bit to bring more to the top.
There was a major kill in a short pool near Tiskilwa (sp) I think the pool number was #11 but not sure.
They said it will be the first of June when the determination is made how many pools need restocking. :confused0024: Mike

[hnd]

yes, you are right on that one that he can only tell what he is told,lol. and ive heard plenty of fish tales myself of fish that were only half the size of what people claim,lol...they must have caught some crappies at least im guessing but i found it hard to believe myself that they caught that many and that size out of a canal that size..

i've caught crappie that size out of the hennepin before...these all ranged from 9" to 14"

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/crappie4.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/crappie2.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/micahandari/Crappie1.jpg

[Schoe]

Your the man Micah, proofs in the photos. I noticed the date on the one photo is a while back. In your opinion are there still some good Crappies in that end of the Canal?

Thanks for the photos, Schoe

[hnd]

Your the man Micah, proofs in the photos. I noticed the date on the one photo is a while back. In your opinion are there still some good Crappies in that end of the Canal?

Thanks for the photos, Schoe

i had actually just changed the batteries in the camera...

this was in april of 05. more of the same in 06. last year we had my spot droughted out and we didn't do very well at all...

[cambridgefisherman]

I think there are bigger crappie in the canal. At Isaac Walton in particular, I believe that they have gotten bigger as far as average size goes.

[harpenter]

I can vouch for Micah's pics (especially since I caught some of them). We did good early last year, before all the water ran out. I think the biggest one I caught last year was just over 12".

[Illinoisgiller]

Got away for a bit this evening to check out the first section of the canal I was concerned about. I fished the lock above the red bridge.
I did find fish,but not many. I got 3 small crappie and a small fat bluegill.:icon_cool:
This is a good sign as far as I am concerned, and hope there are positive results further up.
The weed cover is comming on faster than I've ever seen it though.:icon_mad: I wasn't about to keep 4 fish so there are at least the 4 I threw back. :party0045:lol Mike

[Fishaholic]

great report mike, hope theres a full comback!!!!

[bowfisher1]

hey there illinoisgiller, i read some of you earlier post about the possible fish kill, i noticed to around february-march. Havent caught any crappie yet this year, seen a few, but bass are killing the top water baits so far. no huge ones yet but decent. Also while out bowfishing for carp I ve been seeing some monsterous bass probablly good 7-8 pounders at least and also several pretty good size cats. I usually am standing about 10 ft. above the water so they are probably a little smaller but not by much.

[Illinoisgiller]

Sure appreciate your input bowfisher:icon_cool::icon_cool:. With larger bass showing up I wouldn't think the problem could be too severe. I was sure concerned when I seen all those dead gills on the bottom, but Mother nature has a way of correcting problems. Mike

[Illinoisgiller]

I and the wife stopped by the Hennepin Canal on the way back from Geneseo today. We found fishable water at the red bridge and lock. There seemed to be a lot of bluegill there so this section wasn't affected much or at all by winter. Seen a few pods of carp cruise through up into the lock and some were BIG.
A fella stopped by with his 12 yr old grandaughter and I let her catch a gill with my rod. She plainly had fun doing that. I took the rod away from her though because she was doing better than I was . :icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin::icon_biggrin:
If you want to get out and fish the canal this spring, you had better hurry. It is weed chocked already and will be completely covered in some pools shortly.
Good news is that the bite is ON. Mike

[Illinoisgiller]

We had a big fish fry Sat. afternoon. I and my grandson Jonathon slipped out to the pool from the red lift bridge to the Green River in the am . We only fished one side almost half way down. We got 50 smallish keepers with a few of the larger being Green Sunfish. Although the gills were on the smallish side, they are plump and appear healthy.
No camera this trip. Mike