Dead fish surfacing at Pocatello pond

Dozens of dead fish have been surfacing at the Edson Fichter Pond the past couple of days. The culprit? Our recent, record high temperatures.

Cooper Felde comes to fish at the pond as much as he can. While he’s used to seeing fish in the water, he’s used to seeing them swim around, not float around.

“I was surprised,” Felde said. “I noticed I wasn’t catching fish and walked along the shores, there’s dead fish everywhere.”

When Idaho Fish & Game came to the pond Wednesday, they counted around 30 to 40 dead fish. Thursday morning, they found the water was 76 degrees from the bottom of the pond to the top.

Due to the warm water, IDFG won’t be conducting their next two scheduled stocks of fish.

“We’ll pay attention to the water temperatures,” said David Teuscher, regional fisheries manager for Southeast Idaho. “As soon as they get back down to the 60s, we’ll be able to restock rainbow trout.”

While it’s hard to predict what Mother Nature will do next year, Teuscher said changes to stocking schedules could be made.

“We may just have to create a stocking plan that doesn’t include July and August, that may be the safest thing to do,” he said. “That’s something we will certainly consider.”

Things are looking up, though, according to Teuscher. He said the fish are starting to behave normally, which is good for family fun.

“We’ve seen quite a few actually come past,” Mark Starr said while fishing with his kids at the pond. “We’ve tried to see if we can get them to follow the lure, catch a few, they haven’t been too interested as of yet– but we’ve seen a few pulled in.”

IDFG said they followed a different stocking plan last year because of the weather. Edson Fichter Pond is the only fishing pond in the Pocatello area.