# Pringle fishkill



## 2thDr

Guide friend from Seadrift just sent me a list/photo of dead trout picked up in Pringle Wednesday afternoon. I asked him if it looked bad or real bad. He said real bad. Some of the trout were over 28. Other reports?


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## going_deep

What's the pictures?


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## Gulfgoose

Anybody see any pics?


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## saltwatersensations

happens every freeze.


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## Salty_UH

i saw a similar picture as well of fish kill from pringle....2 guys 10 trout limit and 2 reds all averaging about 22"

pringle is alive and well!


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## Flat's Hunter

Happened when was it? 2004? It seemed last time the freeze happen quick and people said fish didn't have time to leave. 

Seems to me this time it was cold for several days before the fish closure. Do the fish just not leave Pringle? I know last time people said there were no big fish left in Pringle before the freeze. There were a ton of deads ones then. 

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## chasentail

Most are keeping the pictures on their phones and not sending them out since it is against the law to pick them up without approval from the game wardens. I have seen 2 pictures and it is real bad


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## BBCAT

This thread is useless without pictures.


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## pocjetty

chasentail said:


> Most are keeping the pictures on their phones and not sending them out since it is against the law to pick them up without approval from the game wardens. I have seen 2 pictures and it is real bad


Well it's a good thing you turned them in to TPWD then. Anybody who would run their boat all the way to Pringle Lake and risk huge fines, just to get 10 lbs. of filets? And then take pictures of it and show it off to people? Anyone that hardcore needs to have their fishing license revoked.

You did turn them in, didn't you?


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## chasentail

hard to turn them in for a picture on the front of a boat. The fish are not good to eat once they float to the top and the eyes are cloudy. So to answer your question sir NO I DID NOT


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## WillieT

chasentail said:


> hard to turn them in for a picture on the front of a boat. The fish are not good to eat once they float to the top and the eyes are cloudy. So to answer your question sir NO I DID NOT


Then why is posting pictures a problem?


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## Blk Jck 224

chasentail said:


> The fish are not good to eat once they float to the top and the eyes are cloudy
> 
> 
> 
> I think there would be lots of other fish, crabs, birds, and other hungry critters that would argue with you. I hope they chunked them back in the water after taking these top secret photos of said fish.
Click to expand...


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## Rockfish2

Iâ€™ve eaten many a trout that froze to death in my cooler.


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## Rockfish2

And why exactly canâ€™t these pictures be shown again? From how theyâ€™ve been described they wouldnâ€™t seem to show anyone committing any violations. Iâ€™m calling BS on this â€œreal badâ€ fish kill until I see pictures. Of course if the original post is designed to make people think thereâ€™s no fish left in Pringle Iâ€™m all for it and I apologize!


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## Captain Nathan Beabout

somebody was right on here, it was 2004, and again in 2009/10. As a guide here on the Middle Coast it is sad to see, but you have to remember this is Mother Nature. there is a reason for it, plus pringle lake is only one lake in our bay system. I was out today and we caught several redfish, saw 30-40 trout in the 5-8# range but couldn't get them to eat, and yes they were alive. LOL
I remember going out there in 2009 and measuring fish myself, we did not keep anything, and I also remember having a good winter that year despite the fish loss. In my opinion if there were only 20-40 reported by friends found dead, then we are lucky because I know so many more survived.


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## Rockfish2

Captain Nathan Beabout said:


> somebody was right on here, it was 2004, and again in 2009/10. As a guide here on the Middle Coast it is sad to see, but you have to remember this is Mother Nature. there is a reason for it, plus pringle lake is only one lake in our bay system. I was out today and we caught several redfish, saw 30-40 trout in the 5-8# range but couldn't get them to eat, and yes they were alive. LOL
> I remember going out there in 2009 and measuring fish myself, we did not keep anything, and I also remember having a good winter that year despite the fish loss. In my opinion if there were only 20-40 reported by friends found dead, then we are lucky because I know so many more survived.


Thanks for the thorough report and assessment. Iâ€™ll be out there this weekend trying to get some of those big trout to bite, but hoping more to get a couple of reds for the cooler. I was wet wading there Dec 21st but somehow I think Iâ€™m gonna have to break out the waders this time.


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## ddakota

Iâ€™m confused. If the fish were not picked up and the photos are only of floating fish in the water, whatâ€™s the big deal about posting them?

If the photos are of fish laying on the front deck then they were picked up and thatâ€™s a different story. 

So which is it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Salty_UH

I saw more pictures this AM of the fish kill and it is way bad....kill has happened in not only Pringle but Copano, East Matty, Trinity and Chorpus....h3ll let's be honest Texas coast is trashed from Land cut to Sabine so to all those weekend warriors do yourself a solid and fish only east of the Sabine river for 2018, this will allow the Texas estuaries to recover!!!!!

as for me i will continue to fish trinity and east bay, just to give you guys reports on how bad the fish kill continues to be........ ;-)


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## Blk Jck 224

Salty_UH said:


> I saw more pictures this AM of the fish kill and it is way bad....kill has happened in not only Pringle but Copano, East Matty, Trinity and Chorpus....h3ll let's be honest Texas coast is trashed from Land cut to Sabine so to all those weekend warriors do yourself a solid and fish only east of the Sabine river for 2018, this will allow the Texas estuaries to recover!!!!!
> 
> as for me i will continue to fish trinity and east bay, just to give you guys reports on how bad the fish kill continues to be........ ;-)


I'm glad that my practice wife taught me fluent sarcasm!


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## Demtx

*fish kill*


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## Rockfish2

This picture, by itself, is not especially informative. A tarpon, a snook and a cooler full of what look to be fish (maybe some trout, what looks like a snook, hard to tell much else), and no information on where/when/what type of fish, etc. Of course that information could possibly be incriminating in some way.


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## Demtx

Rockfish2 said:


> This picture, by itself, is not especially informative. A tarpon, a snook and a cooler full of what look to be fish (maybe some trout, what looks like a snook, hard to tell much else), and no information on where/when/what type of fish, etc. Of course that information could possibly be incriminating in some way.


Oh, not trying to show anything incriminating, just some fish that the cold got in Corpus area. Don't have details, but I think it may be some college students doing survey. Thinking we fared okay here except maybe a few isolated and more susceptible species. Haven't heard of any major numbers locally.


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## Rockfish2

Demtx said:


> Oh, not trying to show anything incriminating, just some fish that the cold got in Corpus area. Don't have details, but I think it may be some college students doing survey. Thinking we fared okay here except maybe a few isolated and more susceptible species. Haven't heard of any major numbers locally.


Thanks for the info, I bet the snook will be hit pretty hard. It seems like the relatively milder winters weâ€™ve had for the last 10 years of so may have helped expand the habitat they like and increase their population, but that may be slowing up after this.


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## Sgrem

Massive coast wide fish kill. The few fish that remain are impossible to catch.... you gotta get a guide if you want a prayer of catching anything at all.....sorry no pics.

...um....er....um....i have a few openings in the coming weeks....we doing great with consistent catches....coast wide....book now while the fishing is hot....lol


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## bonkers

Limited out on crappie this morning...hehe...they don't care about the cold!


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## Snookered

That's Alex with the HRI Fisheries Lab....they have a scientific permit to do that...they are in the flour bluff canals (again today)...he texted me that he has over 100 snook and 25 tarpon...no trout or redfish...

they will be used for future genetic studies, fin clips, and the otoliths will be cut out and the fish will be aged....

we were both surprised at the amount of snook and tarpon up in those canals...

while there are a lot of cold stunned turtles being picked up, no other fish kills have been reported....thanks again to the barge operators that suspended operations in the ICWW during the cold snap...
snookered


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## pocjetty

Demtx said:


> Pic of tarpon and snook


Thanks for the picture. It actually makes me feel pretty optimistic. I expected some dead fish from this freeze. If that picture is representative of it, we did pretty darn good.


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## pocjetty

sgrem said:


> Massive coast wide fish kill. The few fish that remain are impossible to catch.... you gotta get a guide if you want a prayer of catching anything at all.....sorry no pics.
> 
> ...um....er....um....i have a few openings in the coming weeks....we doing great with consistent catches....coast wide....book now while the fishing is hot....lol


Well I was just getting ready to go take a few casts, until I read that. Rockport doesn't have any more guides, after Harvey, so I guess I'm just going to wait for spring, when I can do some yard work.


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## pocjetty

Captain Kris Kelly just posted a first hand report about dead fish in Pringle. He describes it as "devastation". But the good news was that Contee and other lakes didn't seem to have a lot of dead fish, and neither did the outside shoreline. I still wish he had gotten some pictures, though. For comparison to past freezes, if nothing else.

For those that don't know Pringle, there is a long skinny strip of deeper water that runs right down the middle of the lake. My guess is that it was just deep enough to encourage fish to lay up there, but not deep enough to keep them alive in the kind of cold temperatures we had. Fish didn't try to hole up in Contee, so there aren't a bunch of dead ones there. No way of knowing if some of the dead fish in Pringle came there from Contee, but it seems likely.

I don't know how deep the middle of Pringle is these days, but I've heard that things have silted in a bit. Deep, but not deep enough is a bad combination. If all that is correct, it's a good illustration of the value of that thermocline, and the reason why barge traffic can kill a lot of fish.


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## c hook

*lmao*



bonkers said:


> Limited out on crappie this morning...hehe...they don't care about the cold!


The trout just go deep, I caught 2 fish yesterday that weighs more then your month of January's limits of crappie. just saying. we have mud minnow size fish here to if we so chose.


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