Striped bass making comeback at Smith Mountain Lake

Lynchburg News & Advance
Published: May 19, 2008

One of Smith Mountain Lake’s most popular fish is rebounding after a parasite influx threatened its existence in recent years.

Dan Wilson, a biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the lake’s striped bass are much healthier today than five years ago when an infestation of parasites caused a large fish kill that came close to depleting its population.

The catch rate for striped bass is the highest it’s been since 2003, and the number of fish at least 3 years old has also risen steadily since that time, according to a presentation Wilson recently made to the Smith Mountain Striper Club.

One-year-old striped bass were caught more often in 2007 than in the previous 16 years.

Wilson said that the parasites are still at the lake but the fish are now in a healthier state to fight against them.

To help the fish survive, he said, the state in 2006 passed a regulation prohibiting harvesting striped bass.

“Anglers can’t legally catch and keep those fish — they have to be released,” said Wilson. “There are not many places in the country that have a regulation like this.”

The department is continuing to stock fish at a lesser number than it did 10 years ago, and Wilson said biologists are still looking at the effectiveness of the new regulation.

“It usually takes a few years before you see major improvements,” he said. “So far it seems everything is in good shape.”

Wilson said striped bass are the second most popular fish at the lake, behind only the black bass. The striped bass draws a lot of fishermen to the lake, he said.

“There’s not a lot of places where you can get nice, large striped bass,” he said.

Eighty-two percent of anglers that catch striped bass at the lake are Virginians. Of those, 70 percent are locals, the management report states.

Fishing tournaments at the lake also rebounded in striped bass catches in the past two years after a decline began in 2000.