[catfishonthelake]

There could be other explanations for the dead shiners besides lack of oxygen. I'm curious if they had their mouths open when they died. I know that if you fish herring below the "dead zone" on LH in the summer they come up with their mouths open. I've had bait die sometimes if a)the bait wasn't very good (cough cough Hi-Way Sports) or if I did not let the bait acclimate to the cold. I always bring ice cubes and start throwing a few in when I buy my bait, when I pull up to the lake and when I start setting my tip-ups to get the bait adjusted to the cold. If a bait shop has their bait in 60 degree water and you throw them right in 33 degree water, they will die. Also, you might want to go to the NOAA website and get the 3 day history for weather. I'm not sure what day you fished, but I've gotten skunked even on some of my best lakes. These days almost always occur when there are no clouds in the sky and the barometer is above 30.20in. Not sure if I'm telling you anything new, but just figured I could offer a few other scenarios since I would assume lakes becoming depleted of oxygen has to be pretty rare.