'Stressed' trout washed up en masse on this Kansas lake's shore. Here's why
Mass mortalities have resulted from the Feb. 23 stocking of thousands of rainbow trout into the frigid waters of Lake Shawnee.
Though rainbow trout are cold-water fish, many died because they were already stressed and the frigid condition of the lake's waters at the time was more than they could take, a Shawnee County Parks and Recreation official said Friday.
"We lost 100 to 150 fish that the fishery allowed were already stressed and that caused them to die," said Mike McLaughlin, the department's communications and public information supervisor. "They are going to deliver extra ones in October to make up for the ones we lost."
More than 60 dead trout could be seen later that morning, either washed up on shore or dead in the shallow water near the lake's south boat dock.
The department's park maintenance staff was removing the dead trout each day as they became visible, McLaughlin said.
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Dead fish were part of same release
The rainbow trout were brought here as part of a program through which Lake Shawnee since 1979 has been stocked with that type of fish, which isn't typically found in Kansas, during the fall and again in the late winter or early spring.
The trout come from Crystal Lake Fisheries in Ava, Mo.
Shawnee County commissioners voted in October 2019 to enter into a contract arranging for the county to pay Crystal Lake Fisheries $57,400 annually for three years to stock the lake with rainbow trout in the spring and fall.
Two trucks were used to stock the lake in late February, McLaughlin said.
"The first truck released trout at the south boat ramp the morning of Feb. 23, when the overnight temperature was 3 degrees," McLaughlin said. "The high that day was only 21 degrees."
The 100 to 150 trout that died were all part of that release, McLaughlin said.
"The second truck delivered fish the afternoon of Feb. 25, when the temperature was 30, and the trout did just fine," he said.
Strong winds were coming from the north at the lake on Friday morning, when the National Weather's Topeka office reported gusts here were reaching 36 mph.
"Trout sink when they die, which is why — when the wind is coming from the north and pushes the water back toward the south boat ramp — some of the fish that expired and were not captured that day wash up into the shallow areas," McLaughlin said.
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'Lake Shawnee is fine and is safe to fish'
A total of 7,000 pounds of trout were released Feb. 23 and 25 into the lake, though it wasn't clear how many individual fish that amounted to, McLaughlin said.
"The fish are measured by weight, not by numbers, as they are of different sizes so the number varies with each stocking," he said. "Thousands of fish are released with each trout stocking."
The recent trout deaths are "an unusual occurrence that has to do with the weather," McLaughlin said.
"Lake Shawnee is fine and is safe to fish," he said. "We will continue to see some fish wash up and will remove them as we are able."
No similar past incidents at Lake Shawnee could be recalled Friday by anyone at Shawnee County Parks and Recreation, McLaughlin said.
"One colleague recalls that a decade or more ago, the trout were stocked and the weather suddenly turned warmer and some trout were lost due to the sudden change in temperature," he said.
When water temperatures reach 65 degrees or higher, trout typically stop feeding, with many dying off or heading to deeper, cooler waters, according to Topeka Capital-Journal archives.
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Tim Hrenchir can be reached at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: 'Stressed' trout dying in Kansas' Lake Shawnee after being stocked
