Follow up

After the intense activity of yesterday, today was relatively calm.

I saw a bald eagle with a rotenone-killed fish sitting just off the water today in a branch of a fir.

And about 5 pm I saw a live fish swimming near our dock. I felt sick when I saw it; my first reaction was that after all that work and effort, not all the fish had been killed. The fish I saw was a carp. I've now done more research and apparently they are more resistant to the rotenone and take longer to kill. It definitely was acting in a very sluggish way, and was swimming near the surface of the water with its upper fin slicing the water.

Last night we netted a few dead fish, mostly perch and one huge bass, dug some trenches in the garden, placed the fish in the trenches, and covered them with soil. Hopefully we'll not have bears or raccoons coming digging them up. Should be good fertilizer for next year!

Most of the dead fish are being left in the lake to provide nutrients for aquatic invertebrates for next year.

My original plan with this blog was just to report on the process of the rotenone, but I might keep it going and report on what happens with the lake's recovery.