Conservation Issues At Hand

Ever since Smith Mountain Lake has acquired this parasite, anglers have been battling it to make sure it doesn’t spread to other lakes. According to Dan Wilson of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, studies have been ongoing and they have not yet found a way to eliminate the parasite, however a bleach and water solution applied to livewells will deter the parasite from spreading to other lakes. Wilson told me that approximately 20% of all largemouth bass in the lake have been found to have the parasite, however on the average there were only say two parasites in a largemouth’s mouth as opposed to 200 in a striper’s mouth. There has only been one smallmouth found in their studies to have the parasite. We are currently trying to develop a baggie with a chemical solution we can give to anglers to mix in their livewells as they leave the lake for another destination. For more information on this parasite and how to deal with it, go to the "Off The Hook" website at www.oth247.com and you will see a full blown article on the subject by Dan Wilson

Gaston Spraying Update

Spraying at Lake Gaston has become a major subject and is rapidly being compared to Lake Guntersville in Alabama as to what could have happened to that lake if spraying continued. B.A.S.S. National Conservation Manager Chris Horton and I have been working on this issue and will have a meeting this summer with officials from the Virginia Federation, North Carolina Federation, National Federation and officials from the Lake Gaston Weed Control Council. In this meeting we will try to reach a compromise that accommodates both fishermen and land owners. I’ll give you more on this as it happens.

It was recently reported that an angler caught a snakehead off a tributary of the Potomac River. For those of you who do not know what one of this fish looks like, check the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website (www.dgif.state.va.us) and look at the fact sheet on the snakehead fish. If you catch one, do not release it. Contact DGIF officials immediately. They are voracious eaters and are most of the time released by people who purchase them as pets only to discard them in our waters. Trust me folks, this is one we do NOT want in our waters if we want to protect the bass. Remember to keep your lights on as night tournaments begin. We need to conserve anglers as well as bass.