Shearon Harris Lake experienced its worst — and probably first — fish kill this past April, when fishermen noticed a majority of the 110 largemouth bass, 35 crappie, 20 sunfish and two catfish near the Holleman Landing boat ramp. At that time, the Holleman Landing was the only ramp open — the Crosspoint Landing was under construction.
Kirk Rundle, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s regional fisheries biologist, hinted the kill probably was the result of spawning-related stress and catch-and-release mortality.
“That fish kill seemed to run its course fairly quick, and the overall bass population wasn’t negatively affected,” he said.
That led Rundle to surmise that tournament weigh-ins scheduled at that time, plus fish having to survive hot livewells for extended periods of time caused the deaths.
The Commission (www.ncwildlife.org) now has a “Keeping Bass Alive” tips card with catch-and-release tips: keeping fish out of water for a short time, using wet hands to handle them and dehooking while fish are in the water. Anglers should handle fish as little as possible to protect their slime coat, nature’s defense against infection and disease.
The card also requests tournament organizers add a block of ice to holding tanks to make sure water is five degrees cooler than lake water, staggering weigh-ins, keeping fish in weigh-in bags less than two minutes and holding “paper tournaments” that don’t use weigh-ins.
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