I front what is about a 25 acre flood control lake when full. When full, it is about 10 ft deep in middle and 3-5 ft in most of lake. Very silted up. Not much vegetation at all. Had it electroshocked in 2005 and had good supply of big threadfin shad, light on bluegill,(put 6,000 2-6" coppernose into it in 2005) good supply of crappie and low count of bass, but some up to 5 lbs.
Question: With drought, lake is now about 8-10 acres and max depth of 5 ft with most of it 2-3 feet deep. Do you think everything in it basically died due to lack of oxygen? I'll take any opinions or thoughts. Thanks

If the fish all died there'd be some sign of that. Bones by the shoreline, fish heads strewn about....

A lot of lakes did die this past summer, but just because it got low doesn't mean this one did.

Best bet is to do some sampling of some sort.....fish the lake and see what you catch, toss a cast net and look at what you get, and best bet would be to do some shoreline seining and see what comes up....

If you catch any shad at all, the lake didn't have an oxygen depletion or they'd be gone. If only small sunfish and nothing else, a lot of the fish might have died. But they might just not be showing up in the sample.

I agree with FB, you would have seen evidence of a fish kill if you lost them all. My guess is the bass really fattened up on the bluegills with reduced places for them to hide.

The lake is probably way out of balance...and fixing to possibly get even more so when the water returns and you get a huge crappie spawn. Crappie generally have huge spawns in water bodies that have been down for awhile and then re-fill. If that happens, it will be full of 6 to 8 inch crappie. That's something I would watch out for in another year or two.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Yes I have been concerned about the balance and the crappie population, but don't want to put more money into it at this time. Just need to find out what is in it now.

Thanks

Structure/ Habitat will be critical this next coming year. With low water levels now is a perfect time to beef-up your shoreline habitat. Not very expensive and well worth the effort.