Big Mystery at "Spooky Lake"

One

One

Banned
My fishing buddy Jeff and I just got back yesterday from a camping/fishing trip to “Spooky Lake”, a private place on a ranch we’ve been catching a lot of sunfish and bass this summer. After not getting any bites or seeing any fish for a spell, we rowed the boat all the way around and there were no fish to be seen at all,... no minnows, no juveniles, no nothing, and the lake had a bad foul smell. The water was clear and we could see the bottom all the way around. Another strange thing is that there were no fish remains to be seen,… no dead fish as is usually the case with “fish kill“. There were some live turtles, frogs and birds in the lake though.

The sister lake about ¼ mile away had fish and seemed to be fine.

The folks who own the lakes are relatives of Jeff’s and he’s going to see what he can find out.

"Spooky" just got a lot spookier…

DSCN7090_zps1d0e6be0.jpg


Anyone have any theories about what might have happened there? It’s only been about a month since we were there last.

DSCN7106_zps0f79b7c1.jpg
 
Big dawg, We didn't see any alligator tracks. :)

The fish all just mysteriously disappeared,... skin, bones, heads and all. Thousands of them, all shapes and sizes.

Besides the foul smell, the only other clue was a small deposit of white "dirt" at the drain. I checked it out and should have taken samples of it and the water myself, just out of curiosity. The white dirt was soft and fluffy and had no odor. It looked and felt like ash. Maybe during the monsoon season an ash deposit washed into it and changed the PH?... but that still doesn't explain why there were no fish remains.

If it's something the ranchers did on purpose, I'm sure we'll be able to find out.
 
Last edited:
take a water sample and send it to the "county" for testing...
off that there is none remains...and tragic. I hate to see kills like this when they don't need to happen...
 
If the ranchers don't already know about it, we'll make sure and tell them. It's a ways from my house, so it would be better for them to check it out.

I did a little poking around on the topic and some say that these mysterious "fish kills" are happening all over the world.
 
A similar thing happened to a pond at a family friends house, it turned out to be birds. I think ospreys specifically, the fish were gone in a matter of months.
 
There were more birds than usual, not sure what kinds they all were though. If it was birds, I wonder why the sister lake was apparently untouched? We did catch quite a few fish there,... within walking distance from Spooky Lake.
 
The birds left soon after they got all the fish. They did you say there's a drain running into it? If something cameout the drain that killed the fish they would be gobbled up pretty quick by birds and turtles, which have a larger body mass so wouldn't be affected so bad by the poisonous stuff. That's my theory.
 
There's a drain coming out of it. I think it's primarily spring fed. The ranchers use the water for cattle and horses and let a little off now and then.

I did hear birds at night while I was trying to sleep, that I've never heard before,... but didn't see what they were. Their call was very different and loud. If it was birds, they sure picked it clean,... not a minnow left that we could find. Last time they were all around the lake.

I think it's possible birds, animals and insects ate all the fish remains, but don't think they completely drained the lake recently. It would probably take at least a year to refill naturally, which is usually the case with any of the desert lakes in that area. Most people would probably call it a pond, but out here in the desert where there isn't a lot of water, we see it as a lake. Most of the fish ponds out here are much smaller.
 
the white stuff sounds bad. you should tell the rancher and contactthe county health or wildlife dept. if the water is't good for fish it's not good for cows.
but on a lighter note it could be a surface thing like very cold rain,a surface alge bloom that took all of the oxagen out of the water and made them go to the deepest part of the lake. but i would still talk with the county health dept.
 
Last edited:
The fish were infected with a protozoan which killed them but not turtles, frogs & birds... yet.
 
Gary Miller said:
the white stuff sounds bad. you should tell the rancher and contactthe county health or wildlife dept. if the water is't good for fish it's not good for cows.
but on a lighter note it could be a surface thing like very cold rain,a surface alge bloom that took all of the oxagen out of the water and made them go to the deepest part of the lake. but i would still talk with the county health dept.
Click to expand...

We are going to tell the ranchers. Jeff will talk to one of them tonight. It's really more up to the owners than us. We're just going to report it to them, if they don't already know. There are a lot of small old abandoned mines in the area and some lakes have high mercury content that comes from the old mining operations. They had to drain one back a few years ago, refill and re-stock it. In that case none of the fish were dying, but they were concerned about people eating the fish.

I think oxygen depletion is the main cause for fish kill, but the water was clear and no signs of extra algae. The surface of the water did look a little different though, lots of tiny plant debris and "dust" on the surface...
 
Clydetz said:
The fish were infected with a protozoan which killed them but not turtles, frogs & birds... yet.
Click to expand...

Some type of biological infection, might account for the foul smell.

From what I've heard the lake/pond has been there for over 50 years and we haven't heard of anything happening like this before,... but we're all ears right now.
 
I did a little more reading and it seems golden algae (and its toxins) is the most common cause for fish kills in Arizona. It normally happens during the cooler months, but can happen in the summer. Foam lining the shores is associated with the golden algae. We didn't see any foam or discoloration of the water, but may have gotten there too late. The good news is that it isn't a threat to humans or livestock.

Golden algae:
http://www.azgfd.gov/temp/golden_alga_faqs.shtml
 
... just got off the phone with Jeff. He talked to the rancher last night, and the rancher/ranchers didn't know about it. So, a first report was made by Jeff.

It was probably a golden algae bloom, but I'm sure the ranchers will test the water etc., and take care of it, whatever it is,... since their horses and cattle use the water. If it was an algae bloom, then I think they just wait for it to stop, re-normalize, and then restock the lake with fish.

Jeff also said that they had drained off quite a bit of water recently. I think that could have triggered an algae bloom.
 
Last edited:
A few years back (late 80's/early 90's, I can't remember exactly when) the Government was testing a new spray developed for bollweevils to protect the cotton crops. They paid the local cotton farmers to allow them to aerial spray the cotton crops, with a new bollweevil irradiation spray! No cost to the farmers all they had to do was post signs on there fields before spraying!

The house where we lived at the time was in the middle of 360 acres of prime cotton growing fields, as well as there were several other farms around us growing cotton. Several locals had small farm ponds within a 25 mile radius of the fields that were sprayed, under this project! All of the fish ponds had a kill that begin almost immediately. Within 24 hrs. not only fish but anything that was in the pond or on the banks, was dead! Of course the government came back and reimbursed the farmers for the dead fish. The fish and other aquatic life that died from the spraying were cleaned up by government employes sent to the scene but, not before we began to notice dead and dying birds in the neighborhood. I still believe it was because they had ingested the dead fish!:31:

After we discovered the fish kill I went back to read one of the signs that the farmers had been paid to post on the edges of all the fields sprayed with the new experimental bollweevil spray! The sighs read:

Keep out this field has been treated with boolweevil irradiation spray. Absolutely no entry for seven days!:what!:

What do you mean no entry????? We lived in the middle of those acres that had just been sprayed. After reading the signs we would not even let our kids out of the house for nearly a month, fearing that they might come in contact with the spray.
Within the three local farms I personally know of at least three that died from cancer. I often wonder what myself and my family were actually exposed too!:shush: That gives new meaning to don't tell!!!! Funny thing about it none of this ever made the news either back then!


So maybe there has been some spraying going on in the area!
 
Last edited:
That's an awful story. Sorry to hear about that.

The only "crop" growing around there are grasses and weeds for the cattle and horses. It's part of a grassland area in southern Arizona. The fields were infested with grasshoppers, (millions of them), so I don't think there was any recent spraying of insecticides. I did catch a few nice sunfish at the sister lake on grasshopper pattern foam flies I tied.

The algae blooms need very special circumstances to occur, which might explain why only one of the lakes was affected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top