Fish kill at Grand Lake under investigation

They call it the worst fish kill on Grand Lake that anyone can remember. Officials are trying to figure out how more than 400 fish wound up dead and counting. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Steve Berg

Tuesday, July 12th 2005, 6:49 am

By: News On 6

They call it the worst fish kill on Grand Lake that anyone can remember. Officials are trying to figure out how more than 400 fish wound up dead and counting.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg went to Grand Lake and he says authorities at the lake think it stems from a bass fishing tournament over the weekend.

"This appears to be one of the bigger fish kills from any tournament we've ever had." Grand River Dam Authority Lake Patrol Chief Bruce Smith says they first noticed the dead fish on Saturday. That prompted them to look into the Central ProAm Association's bass fishing tournament that was going on this past weekend. "We were there. There were several lake patrolmen there. There were also two game wardens, we pretty much saw the situation for what it was."

Smith says tournament fish are put into a holding tank after being weighed, for later release into the lake. He says he saw several things wrong. "Probably too many fish in the release boat, probably too hot water, probably too long a line, waiting line, to weigh the fish in. A whole combination of things."

The Grand River Dam Authority estimates that over half the fish caught in the tournament died. The News on 6 called Missouri-based Central ProAm. They said in their 17-year history, they have achieved a 98 percent live release rate, the highest in the industry. And they say they'll investigate this event to evaluate the water in the areas the fish were released, as well as the water in the release boats.

Grand Lake has another big tournament next weekend and they say they'll be scrutinizing the events much more closely. Dr. Darrell Townsend with the Grand River Dam Authority: "If you get one or so of these, the ecosystem can typically handle it and it will recover, but with these large tournaments coming in week after week, if you don't do something to curtail the mortality, then you can have a dramatic impact on the bass population in Grand, absolutely."

Lake authorities say the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation was at the tournament as well, but did not find any violations.