Many of the sick fish exhibited sores around their mouths. While it would seem these could come from infected hooking wounds, we couldn't find hook punctures on the fish with mouth sores. Of course, some had such bad lesions it would have been tough to tell if they'd been recently hooked.
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures.
Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism.
After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters.
Hi!
Tag!... and thanks for posting your pict and info - came up first in my search this morning for information. I found a really old, large female? catfish guarding her eggs in a log yesterday just covered in mouth cankers. They seemed more like blisters than your bass' sores, though. Have you found any info? Indicative of water quality or certain chemical being dumped in watershed, or new fish disease?
Wondering.... in Minnesota.
Jana
-Scientists still haven't figured out this Virginia river problem, Jana. There is some indication that a fairly common cool water bacteria may be involved. There is no indication that a specific pollution problem is at fault, though there is plenty of speculation along those lines.
It's not at all uncommon to find fish with sores, etc., in any body of water. Fish get sick, just like everything else. When it becomes widespread, that's when you have bigger problems.
mt
Comment by J. Kane — July 14, 2009 @ 10:10 am