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| Just heard of some significant musky deaths during the last year on Shelbyville. Since I am stocking director for my club I want to see if we should set aside some funds for one of my favorite IL places to fish???
So who knows what happened, and how many musky were lost? I have heard estimates as high as 75%.
Steve |
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Posts: 512
Location: Appleton | Just a question but if there was such a high die off why was there no word of this earlier? Did they all die off recently? Not starting anything but 75% seems news worthy.
EDIT : http://www.shelbyvillemuskie.com/index.shtml
It seems like there were no problems with the fishery during the fall tournaments.
Edited by Team Rhino 1/18/2008 7:32 PM
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Posts: 1106
Location: Muskegon Michigan | Just hope and pray it wasnt V.H.S. Kingfisher |
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Posts: 2024
| Steve,
First off, it's all hearsay and until the DNR diagnoses the problem I'm of the opinion there IS no problem. The numbers and major die-off you're referring to is in the spillway. Shelbyville's muskie population is healthy and thriving. Problem with the spillway is that it is essentially a giant raceway, thus any contagious bacterial infections are easily transmitted. Also, the Corps pulls water from below the thermocline creating a potentially oxygen deficient environment rich in compounds like ammonia that settle to the bottom (below the thermocline) in lacustrine environments. All these factors can combine to create a BAD situation, but I admit this is all merely speculation and hearsay. |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | i have never fished shelbyville but i talked to a buddy who went there for the first time within the last few weeks and fished the spillway. he said they caught one and the guy next to him caught one. his words were, both fish looked bad. it sounds like those fish in that area really take a beating. |
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Posts: 2024
| muskihntr - 1/18/2008 8:29 PM
it sounds like those fish in that area really take a beating.
Not to sound cynical, but that's the understatement of the year!  The environment down there is atrocious. Those fish are packed in there like sardines, and its almost a rarity to find a fish without some sort of sore or open wound.
Attached is a pic of a fish I caught last year with a fresh wound and multiple other scars of similar shape (I can only ASSUME they're from snagging). This looks pretty fresh and they range from one to multiple wounds per fish and sizes from quarter-ish to fist size and bigger. Such a shame...
Edited by esox50 1/18/2008 10:37 PM
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 soreresize.JPG (95KB - 235 downloads)
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | The PMTT has an event here in May...... Will this (rumor so far) effect anything ?
It sounds like the die off is not in the lake but in the spillway area ?
Can the DNR or someone who is in the know clairify what is going on ? Thanks,
Jerome |
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Location: Illinois | I fished two tournaments at Shelbyville last Fall, and plenty of muskies were caught and released. I believe this is a non-issue with regards to the lake. I've heard from knowledgable folk that this is a spillway deal.
In regards to the Spring PMTT there this year, let me alert you that the last year's Spring musky bite was BRUTAL, by most reports. That was most likely caused by a particularly cold Spring. If the bite is difficult this year, I'd hate to see tournament fisherman claim the lake is dead due to "something I heard online".
Mike Witowski |
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| The Lake of shelbyville is fine! I Repeat, FINE!!!! The fish below the spillway were sick and there was a large die off. Numbers of estimated dead fish are all over the place, any where from 25% to 75% of the fish have died.
If you ask me, what happened is a die off because of an over population. The spillway receives somewhere around 1000 fish per year from the lake. These fish can not get back to the lake. So in 5 years there can be up to 5000+ muskies around the spillway or something like that. Some of these fish may go down river or may end up being eaten by locals and such. The end result is a lot of muskies in a small amount of water.
This die off is normal in natural. The strong survive and weak die from a disease...we hunt dear to prevent the same thing from happening to them.
The PMTT is fishing the lake. The lake has a large amount of fish! It has big fish!!! The PMTT will do fine as long as they do not piss off the local boaters again!
Shelbyville is fine, but if you want to stock it with an extra 10,000 skis I would love it!
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Posts: 95
| Why doesn't the DNR install some sort of fish barrier at the spill way like they did on kincaid? This has proven to improve the fishing on kincaid since it was built. Does anyone have any info on this? |
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Posts: 2024
| It's not a State controlled lake; controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. The main argument against installing a barrier like that is that if something large broke loose from the barrier and hit the dam or got sucked down into the gates, etc. it could compromise the integrity of the dam.
You've also got to consider the fact that the spillway brings in a fair amount of business to the city of Shelbyville, especially for those shore-bound, thus (probably) the reason for no fish rescues below the dam. I find it hard to argue with that. |
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Posts: 16
| Kinkaid has a fixed spillway. Shelbyville is also a power generating dam with outlets below the static lake level unless the gates are raised. Brriers are not practical. Typically these dams have atrash rack system to prevent large items from going thru and damaging the turbines. It'sd a miracle the Muskies get thru and live. |
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| Steve, why would you stock muskies in Shelbyville? It has two huge problems that other lakes you could consider don't have; a. a huge open door at one end, b. the state is already stocking it to the limit of what they feel it should get, so anything you put in will result in a reduction in what they put in = waste of your money.
Shelbyville is a unique impoundment in IL in that it draws from the bottom. It could be that the spillway is indeed overstocked as a result of execessive escape. Why did so many escape? Several years ago the lake was a flood stage in the middle of winter. The shad are ususally in the deepest part of the lake in mid-winter which happens to be right in front of the dam. This was about the same time people were reporting a massive shad die off in the spillway. Cooincidence? |
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Posts: 117
Location: champaign, illinois | First off the dam at Shelbyville is NOT a power generating dam. Shelbyville is first and foremost a flood control reservoir, one of three by the way, for the Kaskaskia river which eventually dumps into the Mississippi. Got to keep those barges moving and floodwaters in check you know.
Secondly, I have been privy to SOME talk regarding a barrier although nothing is set in stone, or at this time even viable as it would require the go-ahead from the Army Corps of Engineers.
Thirdly, and this from Steve Pallo who is now head of fisheries for Illinois, that the number of fish going through the dam are taken into account when stocking numbers are decided.
And lastly, as Sean alluded to, the die-off wasn't that bad in the spillway (and NON-EXISTENT on the lake). But the conditions down there with so many folks fishing it (including a few poachers), the high population of ALL fish, and so little area to be in that the kill/snagging is inevitable. Add in the late cold spring immediately followed by the hot summer and you have just made for a disaster waiting to happen.
Jay Meeker
Lake Shelbyville Muskie Club |
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| Thanks Jay, just what I hoped to hear from someone close to the situation. |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | What a shame the fish are lost over a spillway, sounds like similar problems we have in my part of the country on the Columbia River with Salmon. |
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