Kerr is better the second time around

Kerr Reservoir was one of the best striped and largemouth bass lakes in the country for 25 years after the lake opened for public use in 1952.

Anglers caught stripers weighing as much as 25 pounds from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s. A massive striper- poaching operation hurt the population until arrests were made. In 2003, copepods (“gill lice”) cut down the population of the remaining adult rockfish. For the next seven or eight years, catching an 18-inch rockfish was considered an accomplishment.

In 2010, angling took a second direct hit when Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries biologists discovered largemouth bass virus in 40 percent of the lake’s bass. Copepods also infected some largemouths, further reducing their numbers and sizes.

Although some fish continue to show signs of the two diseases, Kerr’s stripers and bass are recovering, as the lake is loaded with 3- to 5-pound bass. Stripers range from 3 to 10 pounds, with a few 15-pounders in the mix.

“After bigger stripers died, small stripers got established all over the lake,” guide Joel Richardson said, “and that’s what we’re catching now as they keep growing. Over the last four years I’ve seen good sizes, 8 to 13 pounds, but the lake still has a tremendous number of small ones.

“As for bass, the lake’s about 60 percent of what it was before the virus hit. The number of 3- to 5-pounders isn’t where it was before 2001 … but it’s gotten a lot better than it was four or five years ago.”