Fish & Wildlife In Beaver Creek

[IFISH2]

Anyone know what the Fish & Wildlife were doing with all the nets in Beaver Creek/Cimberland last week. Also, what is the fungus looking stuff in the small stripers mouths we caught in Beaver?

[Carter1]

Maybe that is why they were there, to find out what that fungus is.

[stripernut]

the "fungus looking stuff" you saw in the mouths of the stripers you caught is actually the "copeped parasite infestation" . it is rampant in cumberland with most fish having some degree of infestation. the biologists are very aware of the situation and have been watching it (privately, why it wasnt made public i cant answer). you can learn more about the copeped by typing "copeped infestation in stripers" on the internet and get a pretty good explanation. Hurricane Bob mentioned this problem in the off topic section a couple of weeks ago. the problem has ranged from complete devastation to the fishery to a minor annoyance in other fisheries in the southeast historically.
the major problem with this parasite is how it "stunts" the growth rate in stripers (hence the longer time to weight/length maturity).
on friday while live bait fishing for smallmouth we caught between 15-20 stripers ranging from 20-32 inches with every striper having some degree of infestation. saturday we caught 7 stripers with the largest being 13 pounds and again all fish had the parasite to some degree.
i havent noticed the parasite in the mouth of any bass, crappie, walleye, drum or cats.
if the infestation is very bad the fish is "whithered and very skinny" , a 44 inch fish caught the second week of october weighed just over 9 pounds and was so weak it hardly fought at all.
i havent kept a single striper since noticing this problem and after looking in the mouths of a badly infested fish you will likely lose your lunch....its gross. the material i have read suggest that humans are not part of the life cycle of the copeped.....whatever, its still a nauseating sight, the choice is yours, and now you can make that choice AFTER looking in the mouth lol.
2 days ago while helping a friend pull a boat out of the water for winter maintenance we noticed the parasites had "clung" to the light film of algae that had formed on the hull, talked to a biologist about this and he felt this was unheard of and seemed kind of perplexed as they only tend to attach to live fish.

p.s. they were doing creel netting surveys in beaver the other day, also did some netting in indian as well.

[striperjoe]

I remember reading about this Fungus several years ago and the article was about Smith Mountain Lake . They were worried then that it would spread to othe rFisheries and apparently it has came to KY.
The Stripers at Cland have had a several bad years with the lake being lowered and then 2009-10 fish kills.
The Stripers are seriously stunted as they have been just keepers or under and that slightly larger ones have had that "Thin ' look to them for a while.

Guess it wasn't the heat or oxygen.

[HURRICANEBOB]

FROM OFF TOPICS: CAN STRIPERS GET BUGS.

Was just surfing for some biology type info on Stripers and their habitate and ran into this nasty little bit of info. Weird looking little deals that TN and AR have seen in bass of all types. Just wondered if anybody has ever seen them first hand.

Cause can be IAW articles bad water quality, low oxygen, and seems these little bugs can cause fish kills in larger fish. Probably something good for an angler to be aware of, especially as from what I read, they can accidentally migrate from one body of water to another. So it would be good to know what they are to help prevent that.

Articles I found were: (Disclaimer-don't click if you just ate lunch, these things are GROOOOOSSSSSS.)

http://www.arkansasstripers.com/stri...h-copepods.htm

http://www.tnfish.org/FishDiseasesPa...Negus_TWRA.htm

[HURRICANEBOB]

the "fungus looking stuff" you saw in the mouths of the stripers you caught is actually the "copeped parasite infestation"

Thanks for the heads-up. I think we all ought be aware, and we all ought start asking questions about any possible human health impacts, what we have to do to prevent this stuff from spreading, and what if anyhting we can do to help.

Call me sensitive, but just tends to get me hot under the collar if KDFWR knew this was out there and didn't send up rocket flares as alerts or atleast as something to watch out for.

I wonder if there is any environmental reason in the lake this got started, or was it imported to the lake from somehwere else that had the problem. Come on KDFWR, make me smart about this stuff.

[HURRICANEBOB]

Does anybody make Prophylactics for boat hulls?

[stripernut]

good questions bob.
and to answer your other question.....i always practice "safe boating"

[IFISH2]

I did read on one web site that normal healthy stripers/fish usually were not infected but ones that were stressed from less than ideal oxygen levels and/or temp were more suceptible. I agree it sure looks rough. I would have to be real hungry to eat one.