Strange fish behavior

[RUGER]

Buddy just called and he is fishing in a pond that is approximately 2 acres.
Depth unknown.

He said there are hundreds of BIG bream on the surface of the water in the shallower portion of the pond.
Heads up, like they are gasping for air, tails down.

No reaction to bait being placed literally on the face.
When you get closer they will slowly swim away, but fast enough you can't grab them with your hand.

His concern is a "turnover" of the pond.
Recent conditions just don't meet the usual ones for a turnover.
Recent almost daily rains, water is not overly heated, actually kinda cool he said.
Water isn't stagnant.

Nothing really screams "turnover" but he has never seen anything like this.
Said he has seen a "few" dead fish but nothing that would normally draw his attention.

He is gonna try to get me some pics later.
Any clue?
Anyone seen anything like this?

 

[easy45]

I've seen catfish do this in our family pond before it turned over but normally the smaller fish like bluegill are the last to die when that happens, but a lot died when our pond did so it could be, that's all I can think that could be happening

 

[CATCHDAWG]

Sure sounds like turnover to me. That's normally when it happens in a pond, after it's been hot for a while then a cold rain hits.

 

[Biggun4214]

Low oxygen, fish are actually gulping air.

 

[fishboy1]

Its more common further south. Algae die off sucking oxygen out of the water.
Hot sunny days cause an algae bloom. Then prolonged cloudy weather with rain causes the algae to die back. All that organic matter sinking to the bottom and starting to decompose somehow uses up a lot of oxygen from the water.
The end effect is similar to turn over, but it is from a different cause.

Used to happen almost every summer at our lake back in FL. to one level or another.

 

[GreyGoose]

turnover for sure,make a bad situation in to a good one.........dinner

 

[bigluresonly]

Can you put Oxygen back in the water to prevent fish from dying? I have heard of people backing a bush hog in to a pond and letting it run for a while to generate turbulence. I wonder if that would work. Maybe a water pump to circulate some water could help, idk.

 

[RUGER]

Well it was a turnover for sure.

He went and ran an outboard shallowdrive motor for quite a while.
Carried it back this morning to repeat it and found about 350 big dead bream.

 

[scn]

Its more common further south. Algae die off sucking oxygen out of the water.
Hot sunny days cause an algae bloom. Then prolonged cloudy weather with rain causes the algae to die back. All that organic matter sinking to the bottom and starting to decompose somehow uses up a lot of oxygen from the water.
The end effect is similar to turn over, but it is from a different cause.

Used to happen almost every summer at our lake back in FL. to one level or another.

x2 It differs from a spring/fall turnover.

 

[fishboy1]

I would think running a motor in a shallow pond would make the problem worse if you stirred up the bottom.

 

[Biggun4214]

I've seen people pump water out of a pond and spray in into the air and allow it to fall like rain to add oxgen. With the recent rains and cooler temps water should gain oxygen.