The chances that there were a lot of other bluegill that had died and been carried off were pretty slim. There was still some ice on the pond, so ice-out is days old there, and if there had been many dead gills, they'd have been mixed in with the bass.
It's possible that their smaller air bladder was not as conducive to bloating and floating them to shore, and they're littering the bottom out on the pond, whereas those big bass did the bloat and float really well. There were a bunch floating out in the middle, blown up against the remaining ice, too.
I suspect that those big bass require more oxygen so may have taken the long winter harder than those little panfish, but who knows. I wish I had a camera to drop in there, but we'll get a seine in before long and see what's up.
Got a trap we can borrow, DB?
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You can be a Fish Recycler too...let 'em swim.
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