Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 2, 1993 TAG: 9312020032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
What many fishermen don't know is that Kerr had the kind of hot water problems back in the summer that came close to attracting vultures to the limbs of shoreline trees.
"We noticed that the water heated up so much we felt the stripers didn't really have available habitat and were dispersed and we think they were stressed pretty bad," said Bill Kittrell, a fisheries biologist supervisor for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Just how much - if any - mortality occurred, Kittrell isn't certain.
"We saw some stripers floating dead, but I think that was more than likely hooking mortality," he said.
Fish hooked, then released or lost, would likely have a lower survival rate if they were in poor condition to start with. Some of the stripers Kittrell observed were skinny, indicating they hadn't been feeding well.
"I don't think it was a crippling blow, or we would have seen or heard of more dead striped bass," Kittrell said.
The importance of the Kerr striped bass fishery goes well beyond providing joy for the anglers who fish the 50,000-acre Southside Virginia impoundment. It is the mother lake of Virginia's landlocked striped bass population, the source of fingerlings for stocking in Smith Mountain, Claytor Lake, Lake Anna and other impoundments. Kerr stripers even are used as barter to trade distant states for walleye, muskie and other species.
Kerr is one of a handful of spots in the world where striped bass complete their life cycle within a landlocked habitat. Each year the big fish, bearing a heavy cargo of eggs and milt, push 40 miles and more up the Roanoke River to spawn. Kittrell doesn't believe that effort will be hampered next spring by this summer's stressful lake habitat.
"There shouldn't have been much in the way of reabsorbing eggs in the ovaries, or things like that. Obviously, there is some effect on growth. But it doesn't take them long to put the weight back on," he said.
Studies over several years have revealed that Kerr's striper habitat shrinks dramatically each summer, which Kittrell believes is one of the reasons the lake doesn't produce the kind of really big fish like those that grab the headlines at Smith Mountain.
When the water temperatures at Kerr warm up in the summer, the stripers attempt to go deep, searching for a thermal refuge. Problems occur when there isn't enough oxygen in the cool-water refuges.
"I think every year in Kerr there is some stress because the lake is shallower and it just doesn't have the same kind of cool habitat in the late summer as does Smith Mountain," said Kittrell. "But this summer was particularly bad."
To begin with, spring floods pushed all kinds of leaves, trees and other organic debris into the lake. The decaying process absorbed oxygen, then the hot, dry weather hit.
Kittrell and his crew have been on the lake this fall sampling the 1993 year class to determine the success of reproduction and the survival of small fish. Thus far, he rates it average.
But there is a positive side, too.
"Last fall, in my net samplings, the catch rates of smaller fish were higher than they've ever been. I see that as a good sign for the future. There were some good year classes, particularly in '91 and '92."
by CNB