Smallie kill on Dale Hollow.

[Travis C.]

Got this off of Doug Markham's facebook page:

Aug 14th.

"TWRA is taking a look at what is killing some of the smallmouth on Dale Hollow. There has not been a huge die off, but some 100 fish or so have been reported to TWRA and the agency has sent samples to the disease lab. in Atlanta to see if a virus is the culprit. I'll keep you posted on this. All the fish reported have been found near the dam--so it may be a a water issue (low dissolved oxygen, too much nitrogen, etc.)."

In reading the comments the number is a great deal higher and is leaning towards an 02 problem. Some fish have been sent to Auburn Univ for testing to determine if there is a virus causing it.

[bd-]

If it's low dissolved oxygen, I'd expect that the trout, walleye, and muskie in Dale would be dying off before it hit the smallmouth. If it's species-specific, it seems like a virus (similar to the Largemouth Bass Virus outbreak from a few years ago) is a strong possibility.

[Travis C.]

Upon re-reading all the comments, there have been some walleye as well and so far only one other black bass species (spotted). Also the testing will be able to test for a virus but not any bacterial problems.

One of the locals said there was a very unsual algae bloom this spring which is not totally uncommon but it hung around for a long time. Then after early July they started pulling the lake really hard which led him to believe its a water quality issue.

[Travis C.]

I wonder if the fish kill, Dave reporting back in May the lake going through a spring turn over not finding any bait on the lower end and the hatchery losing all the rainbow trout early this year are all related in some way?

[txnative]

I had trouble releasing smallies last month on dale hollow. They fought fine, but had trouble going back down afterwards. I'm assuming the difference in water quality from 30' down to the surface is affecting them. I've seen a lot of fishermen on the lake, and if even a quarter of them are having the same problem, then the number of dead fish could be attributed to poor release survival.


Chris

[Andy M]

Here is a link to an article from a couple weeks ago.
http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/are-we-trouble
My uncle is a guide on DH but the last time I talked to him (mid-July) about the sm's he didn't mention it then.