We headed to Everett B Jordan Lake on Saturday for a morning paddle near where the Haw River empties into the lake. We put in at the Robeson Creek canoe access to the Haw. The Water was down about 3' & we bit bottom a few times as we worked through the exposed rocks to the "lake".A few of the trees have begun to change color giving the shoreline a hint of the colors ahead. While we were looking forward to this as a nice way to start the weekend, the lake turned out to not be the beautiful place we expected. There was an oily scum on the water, a foul smell & hundreds of dead hybrid bass floating all over the water. The bass were the source of the smell. These were good sized fish that probably averaged close to 24" in length.
Lot's of other wildlife: the usual great blue herons, a few bald eagles and almost as many vultures as there were dead fish.
We paddled down to Robeson Creek & up it a ways, before we decided that we had enough not so pristine environment & headed back to the car. From talking to some local fisherman, this fish kill is normal for this time of year when the temperature of the water and other factors drive the oxygen content to almost zero and the fish suffocate. This coincides with the huge fish kills on the Neuse River reported in the news lately.
Next trip may need to be a hike....
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