Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

St. James Winterkill


Recommended Posts

I am sorry to say it does not look good at all for st.james. Today I went and looked at the outlet after I heard there were some dead fish there. This is what I found.

TueMar02190347CST2010.jpg

TueMar02190358CST2010.jpg

TueMar02190408CST2010.jpg

Here is a pic of all of them.

TueMar02190418CST2010.jpg

And a little bass.

TueMar02190428CST2010.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope its not as bad as one thinks. Now I dont live in St James but my mom does. I told her the lake had died out last week then on Saturday she calls me and says there are a bunch of peopl eout there fishing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully the panfish survive! They can always put more northerns and bass in if the forage survives those fish should grow back. Dissapointing and I had a very nice ~30+" northern to the boat this summer. Also had some very nice bass pulled in last year and I don't even target them! Hope some of them can make it through! No walleyes yet but it'll be interesting to see what else shows up once the ice melts!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Lot of dead fish starting to show up now

Millions of sunfish and crappies or all sizes

Tons of bass of all sizes

A lot of walleyes in the 20 plus range along with some smaller ones

A few small northerns.

WedMar31223953CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31223935CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31222338CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31215708CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31214016CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31215759CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31215733CDT2010.jpg

WedMar31213144CDT2010.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those are the saddest pictures I have seen in a LONG time. Really really sad that it couldn't have been saved. Unlike many other lakes, all you see are game fish species. Nice walleyes, northerns, gills, didn't see a ton of crappies or any perch in the pictures but the lake isn't loaded with them either. THIS REALLY SUX!!!!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good News. I talked with the DNR folks and they were out on St. James yesterday and caught lots of live fish including bluegill, black crappie, yellow perch, walleye, northern pike, largemouth bass and unfortunately a couple of large black bullhead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not in this area, but that is sad to see. Hopefully more fish lived then died, but it sure looks like a lot of dead fish. Does anyone know why some of the same fish, and same sized fish die, but some live and are healthy?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That Sucks!! looks like a lot of nice sized fish didn't make it. Hopefully some larger walleyes & northerns made it through.

Did the aerators not help? how did the oxygen level get so low?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very good news bigtwin. Although it looks like a LOT of fish died, (and I did have to go look at the lake for myself!) the majority of the fish were bluegills, and anyone who fishes this lake knows that there is a high population of them in the lake! I wonder if they will consider stocking more or if enough made it through to restore the population.

There were quite a few nice bass that died and a fair amount of crappies as well. I know there was a good bass population and an ok crappie population. I didn't see any dead perch floating and maybe under 10 walleyes. I only saw 3 northerns walking the shoreline.

Hopefully enough fish made it and they consider stocking fish if needed. If anything the surviving fish might have a chance to get big with lower competition for a few years!

The lake had an aerator but with the heavy amounts of snow and the cold weather over long stretches the aerator couldn't keep up all winter. Fishing was really good into January, but by late Jan and early Feb you could see 100's of gills swim by a spot on camera, but you couldn't buy a bite. They all looked really lethargic like they were searching for something to get them going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

St.James Watonwan Caught, Avg/Net, Length, Avg.Length

Black bullhead TN 41, 1.1, 10.2 - 15.4, 13.6

Black crappie TN 50, 1.4, 5.4 - 10.3, 8.8

Bluegill TN 91, 2.5, 7.5 - 8.0, 6.7

Largemouth bass TN 4, 0.1, 11.5 - 12.4, 12.1

Northern pike TN 15, 0.4, 15.2 - 35.2, 25.3

Walleye TN 112, 3.1, 8.0 - 24.7, 17.9

Yellow perch TN 562, 15.6, 4.2 - 11.3, 7.4

Figured I'd post it since it was a little tough to find.

LOTS OF PERCH now survived. Good Walleye numbers also!

St James Lake Winterkill Survey

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like many perch survived, more than even the last survey! It looks like bluegill, northern, lm bass, are really down with catches along with walleyes look as if they are down quite a bit since the survey, but hopefully, since it wasnt a complete kill, it turns out good in a couple years! smile

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also looks like the bullhead populations are pretty low, which is also good news!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.