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Posts: 313
Location: On your favorite spot | This thread may belong in research.
Is there anyone who fishes infected waters that cares to post some observations on how they think VHS has affected their musky fishing? Just curious. |
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Posts: 1530
| hi here on st clair we had a vhs die off in o6. observations were dead bloated muskies floating. . after the die off there was a crazy weather pattern thru the season. our lake was actually over populated according to mnr stastements. the sizes mostly influenced was 40-44 inch class. as of now theres no die off for 07. spawn cycle and waters in the mid 40,s range seem to be the times of die offs. hopefully the new generations will affected, and mother nature cures the problem. the problem is man keeps screwing with the bad factors. invasive distributiond and pollutions. |
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| i cant believe it.the question is effects of fishing vs infected musky?
me my self and i |
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Posts: 32890
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | No, the question was whether the disease has effected the muskie fishing for any of our visitors. |
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Posts: 2384
Location: On the X that marks the mucky spot | I've heard of one guide out of the St. Lawrance (sp) that used to average 3-6 fish a day had a total catch of 4 fish all last fall. |
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Posts: 313
Location: On your favorite spot | I'm a little surprised that there is not more discussion or concern over this issue. Our quality of fishing here faces a lot of threats but no single threat has the potential by itself to cause as much trouble as VHS.
It's hard to get a discussion going - is it lack of education, lack of energy to pursue this threat? I don't know, but it's coming and we better be ready for it. |
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Posts: 32890
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I'd bet most folks don't understand how easy this disease can be spread, or how much of a negative impact it can have on a fish population. |
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| To answer the question is difficult,currently I suspect VHS is in all the great lakes and tributaries.Keep in mind the flow from the GL is from west to east,so maybe certain areas have been identified but I suspect those are the areas which the virus had found the proper elements to flourish and show its impact.What is unknown is the true number of fish affected simply because they do not all float ,many sink to the bottom to never be noticed or accounted for.
I guess a good speculation is with die off comes lower population so lower captures
At this point,there really is little known about anything on the virus
It is being monitored and trying to be understood,but I suspect no one knows what its true impact will be |
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Posts: 906
Location: Warroad, Mn | I'm concerned!
First from what the VHS can do to an existing fishery (kill lots of fish). But the way things are now many states won't let you transport any fish across state lines. Some states are shutting down their hatcheries for the year because of this.
This means that states that don't have their own muskies hatcheries or didn't have good luck with this years production won't be able to get fish for their lakes.
Like wise states that have good success with their muskie propagation won't be able to trade muskies for other fish, and not only muskie fisherman will suffer, but other specie fishermen will also.
If this virus becomes wide spread it could do lots of damage. It's sort of in its infancy stages yet, and no-one seems to know too much about what the long term effects will be, but it could be disastrous to many fisheries, if it spreads.
We need to be very careful about what we do with our live wells, and transporting fish of any kind (bait fish included) from different bodies of water, particularly any thing connected with the great lakes.
Here's a link to some information,
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/cei/taf/emergingdiseasenotice_fil...
If you do a google scearch you'll find lots more. This is scary stuff!
Doug Johnson
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| Doug,not to sound doom and gloom,but I fear nothing will be done other than restrictions of transport of fish
Just like asian carp which I have been following,I get the impression some kind of miracle is on wait to happen.I understand its not easy to find solutions.
In both cases some anti virus for VHS for this specific disease should be studied and the potential impacts of the solution would have on the enviroment
This would be costly,unfortunatly I suspect as the proper elements collide we will see more effects and flourishing of the disease in other areas
Asian carp,well strerilize the sections of the river conatinning these fish and somehow build a filtering system to capture the poison to erradicate the asian carp,I know its costly but unless they kill all in those sections of river,theres.no way to stop adequatly the spread and migration of this invasive species
Wait till they age out by sterilization of the species or sterilizations of then tire sections of river
Re-Introduction of original species could be ensued in years after
Both issues are of great concern,they stand to cause population damge to all species
Unfortuntly I suspect we are in a sit and wait period to see how all this un-folds
Quite connering |
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Posts: 1530
| vhs has struck st clair twice to term. this year theres been no die off. hopefully future born fish will have the genes to not carry it or become disease resistant. last year the die off was very noticeble due to bloated floaters. theres many species other then muskies carrying vhs. the great lakes system has been exposed. theres no monies or magic pill.. its up to our federal fisheries biologist to put forth a law,,, not PLAN tocurb invasive introductions. |
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Posts: 313
Location: On your favorite spot | Lots of news today on VHS in the Winnebego/Fox river system. Woodieb8 makes a good point - if we're simply trying to stop the introduction of VHS we're already a step or two behind here in Minnesota.
I'm starting to get Pi$$ed that MN DNR has nothing about VHS on it's website and I don't know what to do - are we just going to sit around here on our thumbs until the floaters start showing up on Mille Lacs???
I'm taking this issue to our Muskies, INC board on Tuesday to see if anyone has any ideas. |
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Posts: 2361
| One good thing about virus infections is that really good virus designs don't kill the host. It may mutate into a less lethal strain. However in limited populations or thin spawning populations in natural reproduction lakes, one severe outbreak could signal the crash and failure of the population. Real threat. St Claire has a huge and widely spread natural reproducing population, and it is good to hear that there seems to be signifciant survival in that lake. Didn't know it had already gotten there. |
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