Officials remove dead fish from Patterson Lake: Another fish cleanup planned Wednesday

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More than 5,000 pounds of dead fish were reportedly removed from Patterson Lake near Dickinson on Nov. 14. However, a second cleanup of the lake is being planned for Wednesday morning, said Ralph Hendrickson, North Dakota Game Fish Department southwest district fisheries supervisor.

The cleanup, which will begin at 9 a.m., is being done by the NDGF and volunteers are welcome.

“If anyone wants to come and help, we certainly won’t turn down any help,” Hendrickson said.

The NDGF eradicated the fish from the lake with a chemical called Rotenone earlier this month.

“The chemical will probably still be working two weeks from now,” Hendrickson said. “Most of the fish are probably dead already, but some of them just float up and then drift into shore.”

The eradication was done after the harsh 2008 to 2009 winter caused a massive natural fish kill. Most of the desirable fish in the lake died as a result and the chemical was applied to Patterson to kill the undesirable fish that survived, Hendrickson said.

However, the lake was stocked with about 100,000 northern pike this summer.

“They were ones we put in there as an insurance policy, just in case we couldn’t eradicate it,” Hendrickson said.

About 1,000 live northern pike were moved to other bodies of water before the chemical was applied. About 500 dead northern pike were pulled from the lake during the last cleanup Hendrickson said.

The fish removed from the lake after the natural fish kill were used for compost, but the fish killed by NDFG will be taken to the landfill. Hendrickson said the chemical used to kill them makes the fish unfit to use for compost.

“There might be some residual chemical in the fish that might hang on for awhile and it might kill insects,” Hendrickson said.

The lake will be restocked with fish next year, Hendrickson said.

Tags: news, local, fish