Lake Freeze-outs

[pikerliker]

What South Central area lakes froze out this winter? I know that Lake Crystal did, but didn't hear of others. I like to try different lakes from time to time and don't want to waste my time this spring on a lake that had freeze out over the winter. Thanks in advance...

~piker

[zepman]

Lake Crystal was only a partial kill. I haven't heard of any others as of yet.

[KTapper]

Mills was open for liberalized fishing, but must have recovered before any fished died because I stopped there and there was no fish on the shore.

[zepman]

Anyone heard if Elysian came through the winter o.k?

[BehindtheHead]

i stopped at Witta last week. there were 2 dead fish (couldnt tell what they were) right by the accs.

i dont know if it froze out?

[smalltownboi2008]

u know witta is just a big waste of time in my opinion. i never fished it and yeah i know there is fish in it and people were caching some nice walleyes out there 2 years ago but this year i only seen 2 people out there all winter long and one was at the beggining of the ice fishing season when the lake just froze over and the other one was like 3 weeks before ice out. i doubt they had any luck what so ever but i could be wrong. they are doing the right thing tho getting away from the crowds of people to find fish so i cant really blame them to much for that. me persoanlly i find it easier to fish actuall lakes and not these hatchery ponds like scotch, dog, savage, witta, henry, and those kind of lakes for example. but anyways getting to your question all the lakes i have been out to made it through just fine and lake crystal was the only one i heard of this year that got winter kill.

[KTapper]

Anyone heard if Elysian came through the winter o.k?

Elysian should be fine I think word would have got around fast if it did winterkill.

[jhanks50]

Does anyone know how bad the kill on crystal was I went out and saw all the big walleye and carp, but the DNR said that the kill would not make an impact on the fishery, so are there still bigger fish lurking out there or is it just full of the little bait stealing walleye now?

[KTapper]

I walked around a big part of the lake, and I would say there are still a decent amount of fish in there. It should still be a good place to fish, and with the extra room the fish left with grow rapidly!

[jhanks50]

KT did you see any crappies that killed on your walk, when i was out there i did not see any panfish or perch that killed only walleye, carp and some small catfish...

[KTapper]

I saw only one small perch. Otherwise just walleye carp and cats.

[BehindtheHead]

smalltown- the question was (What South Central area lakes froze out this winter?) i commented with what i know. i have never fished witta but i dont think its a waste of time.

[Scott M]

Pretty tough to have anything more than partial winterkills anymore. Winters just aren't as intense and exotics like curlyleaf pondweed are still active and producing oxygen through the winter.

So far it's looking like a partial kill at Crystal is all, and the amount of dead gamefish is so minimal its a nonissue. Mills must not have reached the tipping point since nobody has seen any dead fish wash up.