Lake fork bass virus

Just so you know, the current state record, weighing A cattle rancher at the time, St. Clair reeled in his record catch while crappie fishing with some buddies near the Lake Fork dam.

He was using a small hook baited with a live shiner. I recently caught up with Stevenson to talk about the anniversary of his record catch. Personally, think we would have seen a completely different scenario on catching those really big fish had it not been for the largemouth bass virus that hit Lake Fork in Somebody would have done it by now.

We still catch a lot of big fish at Lake Fork, but those genes we had in the lake back then were pretty special. Even so, he still remembers the events of that fateful Thanksgiving eve like they happened yesterday.

He was 42 at the time. Fish and Wildlife Service in Dexter, New Mexico, who initiated the study at Lake Fork, said the idea of the wild fish survey is to test for pathogens to help fishery managers across the United States deal with potential problems.

Woodland said that there is no known treatment for LMBV, but agreed with Storey in that it would be rare for the virus to strike the same reservoir twice.

Tissue samples were taken from the kidney, spleen, and swim bladder from a sample of 60 largemouth bass. That was, "Do you see schools in the past two summers and thus far into the warmer weather of this year? The other point that Dean made was that the small schools were made up of one- to three-pound fish rather than the roving packs of 4-pound and larger fish in the old days. He also had a considerable concern regarding the impact of certain types of vegetation in the backs of some coves.

He felt that the total congestion threatened spawn areas in the sites and this certainly did not help in bringing back the population. Since I have ranted and raved positively in the past about vegetation, allow me to explain. If you get thick surface covering vegetation during spawn you may risk of total blockage of sunlight, which is a critical part of incubating the eggs. Likewise if the stuff mats, you block out bottom growing plants and they die.

The water hyacinth has one of the fastest growing rates of any plant and can divide in as little as 12 days. This means it has a doubling time, which results in it taking over areas in a relative short time. This is of particular concern where the stuff is in backups and not subject to wind, which can raft it on windward sides and cause it to suffocate itself.

Dean also stated that the further up many of the feeder creeks you went, the harder the fishing became. This really hurts since these were the premier bass havens prior to the kill but does perfectly describe my "movie" hole. The other change that Dean acknowledged was the loss of the previously constant productivity experienced during the past years in the deep-water winter holes. Another friend who has been a longtime guide on the lake is Hollis Joiner. Hollis and I go back a long way so his opinion is one I will take to the bank.

He first started by telling me that Fork was much better than the past few years but still had a long way to go to be where it was before the die-off. I had to ask, "Have you seen fish breaking during the summer in the past several years? The same was true as to the status of the upper ends of the major feeder creeks. Hollis indicated that some scattered fish were being caught in these areas, but as a guide he had to concentrate on areas that were the most productive and these were on the main-lake portions.

Hollis was also very concerned with water hyacinth and the fact that if it stayed thick, the spawning grounds would suffer and if it were sprayed, the other water plants that had been absent for several years in the same areas might also die. He was particularly optimistic regarding the fishery in that he was seeing some five- to eight-inch fish this spring which seemed suggest a very late spring or summer hatch on top of the representatives he was seeing from the typical spring representation of last year's crop.

Hollis did note that all of the fish he and his clients were catching were healthy. The second review of the status of Fork consisted of getting input from marina operators. I chose two of the more successful and long-term operators on the lake.

Also both of these guys will as with the selected guides shoot straight. Martin started his business in so he has seen Fork from a true historical perspective. He was hoping for some really large fish this spring, but was happy to have lots of to pound fish caught.

Interestingly, he noted that the folks from more open lakes such as those from up north were not having as much trouble finding fish as the locals following the die-off. He suggested this was because they were more attuned to open-water structure and we had been spoiled due to the presence of considerable hydrilla in the lake and the style of fishing most of us developed to exploit the grass beds.

He felt that local fisherman have, in many cases, not adjusted as well to the loss of grass which in most parts of the lake occurred about the same time as the die-off. Some fish are going to die from various causes in a lake, but a major pollution or environmental cause kills various species, not just one.

The fishing got progressively worse during the summer, but I made a commitment to myself that my summer was going to be spent tracking the process on the lake. Certain things became immediately obvious. The fish kill affected only three-pound plus bass. It also occurred from one end of the lake to the other.

Fish were coming up in the back ends of creeks, in shallow water, and deeper open-water areas as well. My weekly stints were from Highway 19 in the upper end to the back of Coffee Creek, Little Caney, Wolf, and all creeks on the Mustang side of the lake.

Fork has been an outstanding summer schooling fishery with many of the schools being comprised of appreciable numbers of fish, some even being five-pound plus bass.

A very interesting spot for schools has been under the major bridges where one could, from June through September, see numbers of bass chasing shad during the afternoon. I have not seen a school break under one of the bridges since the die-off began. In fact, with the exception of a small area in Birch Creek and an occasional small school in Dale, the lake has looked devoid of school bass. Both the Sabine River Authority and Texas Parks and Wildlife began collection of bass, and releases in the media kept referring to the "limited number" of bass in the kill, stating the worst was over.

Actually, I found a nine, three sixes, and one seven dead in Dale Creek as late as August In late August, after the first in-state tests of specimens were negative, a positive finding was observed from tests at Auburn University. The conclusion was that the bass had a viral infection.

The first report of a largemouth iridovirus LMBV was in in bass kills in four southeastern states. We know about virus-induced diseases in man such as colds, chicken pox, measles, mumps, and rubella, but it might be helpful to briefly look at the culprit. A virus is a very small organism, which can only grow and multiply inside of a cell.

It essentially tries to take over some of the genetic mechanisms of the cell to manufacture more of the virus as opposed to the normal products that the cell genes make.

A virus is simple, yet very tough. It is a survivor, and has sometimes been considered the ultimate predator in that it can sustain itself for long dormant periods and then activate when the right target is present thus controlling complex cells, which it infects. I sought information from two Texas Parks and Wildlife officials. Fish collected from Fork in June and July were also found to be positive. Fish were also sampled from the hatchery in a quality control check to see if it could have been a source.

This is a scary thought, but the contribution of hatchery-spread Whirling disease among trout fisheries in Colorado is well documented. I understood the hatchery fish are at present negative. Tests are also being done on bass from several other lakes including Rayburn and Toledo Bend.

Department officials advised me, as I was working on this article, that Conroe bass also have the virus. There are some basic scientific questions that I posed to agency officials.

Remember this is a new event so the fact that there weren't clear answers is not a condemnation, but simply a true status of the perplex confusion regarding the problem. Perhaps the best way to approach the problem is to list the questions and give the departmental thoughts and my own scientifically thought out proposals based on my observations and a little common sense.