Fish & Wildlife's response to my concern
I regard this as very encouraging:
Dear Rick,
Your e-mail to Governor Haslam concerning smallmouth bass at Dale Hollow Lake was forwarded to me for a response. You stated that �A number of us who winter time fish Dale Hollow have experienced a drastic fall off in our small mouth numbers� and asked if our Department has any info regarding this issue.
Dale Hollow experienced a slight fish kill of smallmouth bass back in July of 2012. Most of the dead fish were found in the mid to lower end of the lake. Our biologists collected several dead and dying fish and sent them off to a fish disease testing center for further analysis. The center reported that they could not find any diseases, parasites, or contaminants in any of the fish that would have contributed to their deaths. As you know this past year was the hottest year on record and as you may recall the month of June was exceptionally warm. We feel that the extreme warm temperatures of June and even the unseasonably warm temperatures of April and May probably lead to some type of adverse environmental conditions in the section of the lake where dead smallmouths were reported. Dead smallmouth bass were not observed in the upper section of the lake during the same time period.
However this was only a slight fish kill in relation to the entire lake. Some of our biologists were diving in the First Island area in August 2012 and reported large schools of healthy smallmouth and spotted bass. In December of 2012 our biologists were sampling for walleyes and they reported that they collected good numbers of healthy smallmouth bass. Our creel clerk has received calls from a few anglers who have reported similar concerns as yours but at the same time he has also received calls that the smallmouth fishing is as good as ever. Typically we see some smallmouth bass that appear to be skinny during this time of the year but we also see some that appear to be healthy as well.
To summarize, our biologists have not observed anything in the smallmouth bass population in Dale Hollow to date that would cause them to be alarmed. They will be sampling the smallmouth bass population this Spring and if anything is �off� they should see it then. I am sending your contact information to Mike Jolley, our fisheries biologist in charge of Dale Hollow, and he will notify you of the results of the Spring sampling after they are conducted.
Regarding your statement that you object to the Corps� plan to restrict fishing access on dams located in the Cumberland River area, we concur with your objection. I wrote a letter to the Corps at the end of October stating our objection to their proposal and our Director wrote a letter to the Lieutenant General in Washington D.C. stating our objections as well. The areas in which boats would be excluded are some of the most highly desirable fishing locations in Tennessee and have been utilized as such since the dams were first completed. We feel that the local impact to fishing, tourism and outdoor businesses will be significant.
I also forwarded your suggestion for more enforcement at Dale Hollow to our Chief of Boating and Law Enforcement, Darren Rider, for his information.
I really appreciate you taking the time to contact us about your concerns over Dale Hollow Lake. We here at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency also feel that this lake is one of the best smallmouth bass fishing lakes in Tennessee, if not in the entire country, and we are going to continue to make sure it stays that way.
Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Bobby Wilson
Thanks for posting your response
Dear Rick,
Thanks for sharing this information. I agree with the conclusion. I guide on Dale Hollow and also found dead smallmouth from the Holly Creek area down to the dam. All of the dead fish we found were slot fish and we only found dead smallmouth. This would lead me to believe that the problem was species-specific. I would also add that winter smallmouth success has declined this winter in comparison to last winter, which would also lead me to believe that the fish kill is partly to blame.
Your e-mail to Governor Haslam concerning smallmouth bass at Dale Hollow Lake was forwarded to me for a response. You stated that �A number of us who winter time fish Dale Hollow have experienced a drastic fall off in our small mouth numbers� and asked if our Department has any info regarding this issue.
Dale Hollow experienced a slight fish kill of smallmouth bass back in July of 2012. Most of the dead fish were found in the mid to lower end of the lake. Our biologists collected several dead and dying fish and sent them off to a fish disease testing center for further analysis. The center reported that they could not find any diseases, parasites, or contaminants in any of the fish that would have contributed to their deaths. As you know this past year was the hottest year on record and as you may recall the month of June was exceptionally warm. We feel that the extreme warm temperatures of June and even the unseasonably warm temperatures of April and May probably lead to some type of adverse environmental conditions in the section of the lake where dead smallmouths were reported. Dead smallmouth bass were not observed in the upper section of the lake during the same time period.
However this was only a slight fish kill in relation to the entire lake. Some of our biologists were diving in the First Island area in August 2012 and reported large schools of healthy smallmouth and spotted bass. In December of 2012 our biologists were sampling for walleyes and they reported that they collected good numbers of healthy smallmouth bass. Our creel clerk has received calls from a few anglers who have reported similar concerns as yours but at the same time he has also received calls that the smallmouth fishing is as good as ever. Typically we see some smallmouth bass that appear to be skinny during this time of the year but we also see some that appear to be healthy as well.
To summarize, our biologists have not observed anything in the smallmouth bass population in Dale Hollow to date that would cause them to be alarmed. They will be sampling the smallmouth bass population this Spring and if anything is �off� they should see it then. I am sending your contact information to Mike Jolley, our fisheries biologist in charge of Dale Hollow, and he will notify you of the results of the Spring sampling after they are conducted.
Regarding your statement that you object to the Corps� plan to restrict fishing access on dams located in the Cumberland River area, we concur with your objection. I wrote a letter to the Corps at the end of October stating our objection to their proposal and our Director wrote a letter to the Lieutenant General in Washington D.C. stating our objections as well. The areas in which boats would be excluded are some of the most highly desirable fishing locations in Tennessee and have been utilized as such since the dams were first completed. We feel that the local impact to fishing, tourism and outdoor businesses will be significant.
I also forwarded your suggestion for more enforcement at Dale Hollow to our Chief of Boating and Law Enforcement, Darren Rider, for his information.
I really appreciate you taking the time to contact us about your concerns over Dale Hollow Lake. We here at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency also feel that this lake is one of the best smallmouth bass fishing lakes in Tennessee, if not in the entire country, and we are going to continue to make sure it stays that way.
Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Bobby Wilson[/QUOTE]
