Large mouth bass virus of the 90’s

Might have been early 2000’s, was anything ever figured out about it? Cause, cures, does it still happen and why, etc??

It was a hoax

In all seriousness, I have a very hot sports opinion on the Lake Fork virus thing that I am about to unleash upon this texas-based internet fishing forum.

I’m down in South Texas, used to be a highly regarded known guide here that swore we had it hit. That was around 98, the best I can remember.

1. TPWD unknowingly spread that virus to Fork, Rayburn, and a few others with tainted batches of fingerlings. I think they figured it out in time to not contaminate a bunch of other lakes but not before the damage was done.

2. Having been able to fish Fork many times before the virus, I submit to you that the fishing was better after the virus. From 2000-2010, I caught more numbers of big fish there than I ever had before the virus. I also submit to you that it wasn't the virus that damaged the fishing to what it is today, it was the killing of the hydrilla that ravaged the lake and the fishes that swims there.

did the fish in other lakes have to wear a mask ? (too soon ?...LOL).

Well just 4 months after spaying for invasive floating plants the fish kill happened on Fork.

This is the first time they ever did this on Fork 1999.

Obvious what happened with the chemical entering the fisheries. Their mixture must have been to strong.

Read up on Diquat and what it does.

Second thing that happened after they messed up was they went into panic mode after killing the fish.

Fork at that time was drawing 28 million to the state and they had to figure a way to bring it back.

Luckily for them Cooper Lake was on fire with 7 pound fish and above.

For months they pulled fish from Cooper to re-stock Fork and bring the fisheries back with adult fish and so the businesses would not suffer to long.

Fork was lucky at that time to receive the boost of new adult fish. Fork got a 10-12 year run on those fish.

Cooper unfortunately died after that , and they did not have a fish kill.

Now how I know this is they were going to Cooper and coming by my house for months, with the tank truck & shock boat, at early hours of the morning .

I then ask one of my friends at TPW what they were doing at Cooper so much at those hours, and what happened at Fork. His replies was...... lets say we are not in the weed killing business anymore ( Response to Fork Fish Kill.)

His Cooper response was oh we are just checking on somethings over there. I told him that was not a very good answer.

There is a lot of things that happened that they will never admit to. Why would they.

Cause they would lose the trust of the public and no matter what, they will withhold info for them not to look bad.

Same as the SAL program they never tell the bad stuff just what they want to so they look good.

I believe Marc’s version 100%

That is a very plausible theory, taking fish from Cooper to restock fork. It makes sense.

I’m being 100% serious, everybody talked about the Fishkill, which I saw with my own eyes. But for me, the fishing was never better than after the kill.

LMBV was in Virginia waters in 2001, 2010, and 2011

We shared a place on Fork before, during, and after the virus. I hated seeing all those floaters and when you did catch a LMB it looked nearly as bad as a spawned out salmon. We stopped bass fishing during the virus and learned how to crappie fish with jigs around the bridge pilings mainly the 154 bridge. For myself the best fishing on Fork was definitely pre LMBV no post.

I remember in 2000 the lakes in East Texas got it pretty bad. A lot of very skinny bass with open sores, and when you did catch one they hardly put up any fight. We were on Rayburn when they filmed a spiderwire commercial with A. Jones and they had to bring a 6-7 lbs fish from Fork because they couldn't catch one on Rayburn big enough for the commercial.
Palestine had it bad also, I think 17 lbs won and 11 lbs got a check in the Red Man tournament. In the Co Angler division 5lbs got a check, something was definately going on.

But Marc they said we were all crazy and the grass never was sprayed……..even though it disappeared that April and the state was pushing eradication of hydrilla. Same happened on RayRobert and Sam Rayburn around the same time. It’s coincidental that the kills on all three occurred around the same time the grass disappeared. It continues even now on fork. Saw them, who ever it was, spraying the pond weed around alligator before the current draw down all that grass disappeared in a month or so at the beginning of summer. This was around the time they ran the “test” in alligator to see if hydrilla would take again but it supposedly didn’t. Even though all the coon tail, pond weed and other submergent grasses that were growing in alligator disappeared around the time of the “test”. Fork will never see grass again. Too many people around the lake that don’t want it.

Fished it since 89……Fishing has never been the same since the kill for me. It’s better that a lot of lakes but if they would have ran pro tournaments there then like they do now the weights would have been incredible. Before the kill those giant schools of 6-9 lbers that roamed big mustang, Bell, or birch creek in the fall (Oct/Nov) surface schooling through the timber have never come back. Also back before the kill we had numerous days catching many 6-9 lb staging fish back to back off one lone deep spot (5-6fow) of hydrilla on the points in the spring. Not to mention sight fishing the holes in the hydrilla for giant fish in the spring. Also remember during that time there were many 11-14 lb fish caught. We should see some big fish in a year or two when the water floods all the brush but I am not sure we will ever see fork like some of us were able to experience prefish kill. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to fish it in those years.

I would like to see some soil test done in the areas where spraying has been done. It sure does seem like the chemicals are settling on the bottoms and not dissolving and causing poor soil conditions which lead to poor lake conditions. The spraying simply needs to be outlawed. Theres zero reason we should be putting those chemicals in our lakes.

Well they spray Rayburn every year, only had the virus the one time in about 1999. I do remember clearly it was an abnormally hot May with surface water temps 90-95 degrees. It was unreal. Combine that with the coincidence that Abitibi Paper Mill was allowed to double their discharge of heavy metals earlier that year. Odd deal that all of a sudden everything suddenly died or struggled. Lost all the grass and huge fish kill. Abitibi I believe was closed later that same year.

Sam Rayburn there was a fish kill in 1995. As a kid you could see up to 10-20 dead bass floating per grass mat. So, hundreds per day plus experts say there was 10 times as many you couldn't see. At first it was blamed on the forestry department for spraying for beetles. Then later blamed on paper mill in Lufkin. If you were alive then yall remember in a course of 3 years we had a flood, Drought, and a snow storm. Still took good weight to win last anglers choice tournament in the summer. Wanna think that Todd Faircloth and Albert Faircloth won that event or AOY one of the two or maybe both.

So Abitibi was responsible for the LMBV that effected many lakes in Texas, as well as the southern United States? The virus was real and it wasn't just at "your" lake.
There are a lot of odd deals, but that doesn't mean every odd deal is a conspiracy.
Just look at the tournament weights at that time. Not much was coming to the scales. The funny thing is, take Rayburn for instance, when the fishing came back, the stringers were full of giant bass. Where were those bass during the virus? They didn't get born and suddenly weigh eight pounds. Same thing at Fork.
In the late nineties, on Ray Roberts, it was taking thirty pounds plus to win a tournament with occasionally a forty pound bag. After the virus, you couldn't buy a bass. And, unlike other lakes. it took years for Ray Roberts to rebound. We had just gone thru a drought which dropped the lake 16 feet. The grass we had died when it laid on dry ground for months. The lake went above normal after a flood and stayed muddy. The bass lost their cover, and should have been easy pickings. But they disappeared.

LMBV = spin(lie) from media to cover killing fish with herbicides as stated above. I have believed that since I watched it happen on Fork and Roberts. Media and the government lie pretty much anytime their mouths or keyboards are moving!

While Mark may have his opinion it did not start at Lake Fork nor end with Lake Fork. The largemouth bass virus was studied for the next two years by a scientist in South Carolina, and they didn't come up with an answer except it was a cyclic event that occurs in nature every so many years.

It effected 22 lakes in the south altogether over a two-year span.

Is there a list of lakes (posted online)?

From a few things I have read, several states started using Dyquat chemical to spray water hyacinth around the year 2000.

From what I have read it seems to be almost every state quit using this chemical because of all the problems it created .

I think TX still uses it for floating plants through out the state. I think this is the culprit IMO.

Read up on this chemical. Dyquat .

I am pretty sure the Birds can transport it as well.

That may explain the spread of it if the other states did not spray this chemical .

I bet most states used Dyquat and had the same results we did . IMO

Also heard it started in the Tennessee River Valley system late 1990s/early oughts (Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky) —->Texas and Louisiana.

Our lake was sprayed last year for that, fishing has gone to hell this year. The lower lake level isn’t helping, I can admit that. Most of the hydrilla is gone now, although they allegedly didn’t spray for it.

How would one find out what kind of spray/chemical they used?

I believe I read some articles a few years back that stated all the lakes that had “LMBV” or a very high percentage were all documented to have been sprayed/treated to remove hydrilla or other species like hyacinths prior to LMBV. Also if cyclical why did it not occur before or hasn’t occurred since? However, I think it has on fork, but it’s really not lmbv, as it was after they sprayed glade, birch and the hydrilla across from minnow bucket that went from alligator to 154 a few years back. Fishing was very poor after that. Also, I caught very sick looking fish, under weight and covered in sores, that year and saw multiple fish that couldn't swim properly. They were upside down trying to swim or swimming up and down nose up…….you could poke them and they just kept going up and down……..

I don't know of such a list, but it has been identified throughout the southeast; from Oklahoma and Texas to Virginia and as far north Illinois and Indiana. In most cases it's present at low rates in the population without causing mortalities or even detectable impacts to size or condition; just latent carriers. Significant fish kills directly resulting from the infections did occur, but they were not common; it was usually a small proportion of the population if any that died (though many of the mortalities were big fish). Bassmaster put out a quick overview of it based on 2005 knowledge (https://www.bassmaster.com/news/largemouth-bass-virus-lmbv-fact-sheet/). Think most of the research since then has been just identifying its prevalence at the state level (as recent as 2021 in Kansas), different ways to detect it, and potential treatments. It may or may not have played much role in the Lake Fork fish kill being discussed here, but the claim that LMBV is a hoax is incorrect.

A sample of research journal articles on LMBV below, full versions of most can be accessed through Google Scholar, and you can read dozens more if you want.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8446(2003)28[10:ROLBV]2.0.CO;2
https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/dao/v50/n3/p233-235/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/H03-009
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8667(2001)013%3C0027%3APOLBVI%3E2.0.CO%3B2
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/T05-100.1
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1577/H08-027.1

Some tool that was in charge at TPWD, cannot remember his name, was the Dr Death to aquatic vegetation. That POS did more harm than anyone in the history of fishery management. Thank goodness that zero retired

I have read many of those articles and others. I’m not saying LMBV is a hoax. I’m saying it’s not the root cause for the die off but a contributing factor induced by other factors/stressors such as spraying the grass resulting in low oxygen in addition to the affects of the chemicals used. For many years there were many saying what some of us saw with our own eyes was imagined or not what it seemed. Many of those also contended Fork was never sprayed/treated with other stuff like pellet sonar back then or even in the 2000s until the hyacinth and salvinia were “spot” treated. Then the narrative was the chemical used on hyacinth doesn’t affect other species but we know that’s not true…..

Didn't someone say onetime, opinions are like another part of the human anatomy?