Dormant lakes

[SWH]

I have a question that somebody here might be able to answer. I’ve been to a couple of beautiful lakes that should hold fish. Both lakes have been dormant. The common thing between the two lakes is both look like they get hit with avalanches. Will this wipe out the fish in a lake? I know that these lakes had fish in them at one time but not anymore.

[bob pfeifer]

What do you mean by “dormant”? Not to sound flip, but a lake either can support fish (all or part of the time) or it can’t.

High lakes that are shallow and/or have limited flow-through can sometimes become uninhabitable by trout due to loss of volume by an avalanche. My experience is these cases are relatively rare. It is more often the case that “marginal” lakes due to shallowness or small volume can winterkill or summerkill in some years when conditions are adverse. The basic underlying problem is usually inadequate dissolved oxygen after a period of inadequate flushing or wind mixing. Summerkill is abetted by the fact that warmer water holds less oxygen in solution.

The fact that a lake does not currently posses fish may or may not be related to avalanche occurrences. A good deal of information about each lake is needed to make these kinds of determinations, and that is why Brian and I launched the formal survey process decades ago.

Hope this helps!

[SWH]

Thanks bob. When I say dormant, I mean no fish. One of the lakes I’m talking about is Ruby Lake on Red Mountain. Sure seems like it should hold fish. I was there for 2 days and never seen a fish jump or had any bites. Then talking to a freind, he told me the last time he was there, he found dead fish near the outlet. Thanks again for the info.

[Brian Curtis]

I’ve been to a lake that looked like it was wiped out by a massive avalanche. the lake was full of snow and logs and a good swath of the valley had been mowed down. We didn’t see any fish but I heard later that they survived. OTOH, there are some lakes that are thought to suffer avalanches that prevent fish survival. Cup Lake in Chelan County is a prominent example.

Ruby is an interesting lake. It definitely does show signs of having a lot of avalanche activity. Fish do survive there, but it certainly is possible that could cause winterkill issues in some years.

[bob pfeifer]

Right Brian. One also has to consider the oxygen demand of the decomposition of a lot of organic debris (mostly in the fir needles I would assume, but also some demand from bark, soil detritus, etc.). It would be interesting to study this stuff.

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