Largemouth bass virus invaded Kerr Reservoir’s bass population in the past decade, but anglers didn’t notice a big decline in fish populations until 2009. The disease causing tremendous stress in affected fish, resulting in skinny, sickly looking bass, a number of which died.
But biologists predicted, the disease, which resembles human measles or chicken pox, would run its course after the lake’s bass built up immunity.
That’s apparently what’s happening these days.
“Bass catches are getting better and better every year, especially the last two years,” said guide Tim Wilson.
Wilson said he didn’t believe LMBV was the only reason fishermen caught fewer bass the last few years.
“I think it was a combination of things,” he said. “We had a blueback herring explosion — they eat bass eggs — and a lot of people turned to catfishing because such big catfish were being caught in the lake, including the world-record blue cat.
“On top of that, the bass got the virus.”
But Wilson said he’d seen more 4- to 6-pound bass being caught from Kerr the past two years.
“It’s getting back toward normal,” he said. “I’d say bass fishing is 60 percent of what it used to be.”
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which monitors largemouth bass in the lake, continues to watch for more signs of LMBV, Wilson said.
“They’re still doing creel surveys,” he said.
An important step in preventing the spread of LMBV is for anglers to clean their livewells with a 10-percent bleach (with water) solution. The bleach kills LMBV, which lives in lake water and might have be transported from an infected lake — possibly Smith Mountain Lake upstream — into Buggs Island.
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