MAURY COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — For six years, Cheryl Miller has found peace fishing along the banks of Campbell Lake. But when she arrived before dawn Sunday, she discovered something that shattered her tranquil routine.
"The smell is really intense," Miller said. "The smell is intense."
For the first time since she started coming to the lake, Miller caught neither fish nor peace. As the sun rose, she watched speckles appear across the water's surface.
"And the more the sun came up, the more you saw speckling across the lake," Miller said.
What she initially thought might be trash or debris turned out to be something far worse, the very fish she had dreamed of catching were floating dead in the water.
"I didn't want to see the grass carp up close like this, I didn't want to see the catfish the catfish. I wanted to catch and release the fish myself," Miller said.
The fish kill appeared to happen overnight, leaving Miller stunned by the devastation.
"My husband called it fish Armageddon," Miller said.
Campbell Lake had been Miller's preferred fishing spot partly because of its accessibility. Unlike other nearby lakes, she didn't have to pay fees to fish there.
" But you don't have to pay the extra $6 dollars a day like you do at Laurel Hill or Williamsport . Here is a neighborhood fishing lake," Miller said.
While Miller suspects lake turnover could have caused the fish die-off, she wants definitive answers about what happened.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says that during summer months, lake turnover can occur when hot weather lowers oxygen levels so severely that fish die. TWRA officials in Maury County say they will investigate the cause of the fish kill.
"We want answers. What is this and how do we keep it from happening again because this is devastating to the community," Miller said.
Although Miller won't return to fish anytime soon, she says she'll still find peace at the lake watching the sunsets.
Have you noticed changes in your local fishing spots or waterways? Share your experiences and concerns about environmental issues affecting Middle Tennessee lakes by emailing Kim at kim.rafferty@NewsChannel5.com.
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Kim Rafferty. When using this tool, both Kim and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team verified all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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