By Chris Erwin
I know that some of you may have already heard about the fish kill on Cave Run Lake near Morehead. I broke this story on June 10. What I mean by that is we started asking questions because you, our readers, started sending me reports of dead fish. For a couple of days, I asked guides and members of Kentucky Angling message board if they witnessed any dead fish on Cave Run Lake.
Tommy Hall and his daughter, Lindsey, came to me to say they witnessed hundreds of dead fish in more than one cove on Cave Run Lake. This prompted me to write Fred Howes District Biologist for the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife service.
In the meantime, reports continued to come in. People were seeing a lot of dead fish on the main lake. From all accounts they were white bass.
The White Bass fishery on Cave Run hasn’t always been a part of the mix of establish fisheries. It was started by more of an accident than anything. However, once the fishermen began to catch these fish, it quickly became a popular addition to the possible fish you could catch on Cave Run.
Fish and Wildlife predictions included a good outlook for the white bass. Numbers looked fine, and the number of big fish was up. So what went wrong? I wish I had all the answers, but I can tell what I do know and what questions we are still waiting on.
Fred Howes did write me back and here is some of his email:
“Yes, during last week and maybe the first part of this week, white bass have been dying off. On Monday, June 10, White Bass specimens were collected and taken to Kentucky State University for testing. Lesions were found on the specimens, which most probably indicates a bacterial infection. Testing for the exact type of bacteria could not be accomplished at KSU so the specimens were sent to the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Warm Springs Regional Fisheries Center in Georgia for further testing. So right now I can only guess that bacteria of some kind killed the white bass.
“The only area of the lake I’ve seen and heard reports of these fish dying off are associated with the main lake (from the confluence of Licking River and Beaver Creek down lake to around Scotts Creek). We checked the upper areas of the Licking and N. Fork and found no dead fish. I’ve also heard reports from anglers that no dead fish were found up Beaver Creek either.
“Several years ago, say circa 2000, we had a White Bass die off at Cave Run and at that time, we thought it was due to spawning stress. In hindsight, I don’t think that was the case because we couldn’t find any recently dead fish to be sent-off for examination. Green River apparently had a White Bass die off a few years ago too. I also think these types of kills have occurred around the country too, but I’m really not sure about this though.
In attempts to rectify this situation, we just stocked about 64,000 white bass (1-inchers) in Cave Run yesterday. If you have any questions, please drop me a line.”
I want to thank you, our readers, for reporting so quickly. I will keep you posted as the test results come in. If you have any questions, you can contact me.
Chris Erwin is the founder and publisher of Kentucky Angling News. He can be reached by email at trimmer308@windstream.net
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