Beware of the VHS

[Joel Taylor]

I wanted to give a shout out to all my neighbor fishing freaks in Minnesota that we have yet another nasty invasive species spreading its way westward toward you and it aint pretty. VHS has just been found in the Winnebago system where I live. I was one of the first to spot the disease a couple weeks ago and have caught a couple fish with it already.

VHS is the worst of the invasive species I have seen to date because it directly infects the fish causing them to bleed to death. When fish are infected they bleed internaly and externaly, it's very ugly and a heartbreaker when it sneeks into your lake before you know what happened.

I am mostly posting this so people become aware and contact their state representative about cutting off ocean vessels from the St Lawrence Seaway so we can put a stop to the invasive invasion from ship ballast water.

Now is the time to act, not when fish are floating dead on your favorite lake so PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE AND TAKE ACTION! I will post more links soon there are plenty as Wisconsin eastward has had alot of coverage on the disease!

jounal sentinal milwaukee deadly invasive species

[Joel Taylor]

Here is another frightening article!

Don't wait to act until blood is oozing out of a walleye in your hands on your favorite lake like I did!

yahoo more on the nasty VHS virus that is unstoppable once its too late!

[tunrevir]

Just heard on the news this morning they have now found it in Lake Michigan. It is a sad day indeed.

Tunrevir~

[Surface Tension]

We've been discussing this in the Duluth forum. In a nutshell its been introduced for Salties entering the Great Lakes. Much of the info out there is new and a lot hasn't been published.

Its on our door step now. Personally I think the states aren't taking the situation to seriously and they should be.

[Joel Taylor]

UGLY! UGLY! UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MILWAUKEE PAPER WHAT A MESS!

[Joel Taylor]

Here is Lake Michigan!

MORE BAD NEWS LAKE MICHIGAN!

[Joel Taylor]

Here is a link that takes you to our congessoinal representatives for Minnesota in the U.S. congress.

Pick your rep and fire off an e-mail saying your sick of the worlds largest supply of fresh water being used as a toilet for all the worlds aquatic diseases and invasive creatures!

Tell em the numbers dont add up and its costing alot of money too!

Its easy and our lakes are worth it!

E-mail your representative here!

[Nate McVey]

There is a petition in the Duluth forum from a few months back, it also has a list of addresses (email and snail)of congress men and women, and a letter that can be emailed or printed and mailed. We had about 100 signatures (over 1000 views) and I sent it off to Oberstar. I have yet to hear anything back.

Here is the shortcut to the letter and one of the discussions.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=992877&page=14&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[cold one sd]

We can hoot and holler at our representatives in Washington all we want to. The problem as I see it is that it uncaring fishermen that will carry the virus and infect other lakes and rivers. It will be in South Dakota and other states west of South Dakota and it will be carried in the livewells and bilges of boats that come from infected waters. If I were to fish these infected waters, I would make sure that my boat wouldn't be carrying this virus to uninfected waters even if I had to disinfect my boat with a bleach solution before I went anywhere to fish. The problem as I see it is people that just don't care enough to be responsible for their actions. I sent emails to all my people in Washington, DC the other day and I hope we can stop more of these things from being introduced to our waters. There is also a permit which may be required to discharge water from our small boats which may be comming from the EPA since a court has ruled that they should be required. You guys may want to give the boys in Washington a holler about this also. I believe they said it would require a permit for about $800.00 per year to use our livewells or pump the bilges in our walleye boats.

[Nate McVey]

Of course it starts with us keeping the inland lakes clean, but the petition and letters were to increase the ballast water regulations so that Lake Superior may stay uninfected. The letter is there, use it if you want or don't, it doesn't matter to me. I will be spraying my boat down with a bleach mixture in one of those pump garden sprayers and I know a lot of other people over here that will be doing the same. It is a small measure and something that we can all do. Maybe another sportsman will see me and ask what I'm doing and I can fill them in.

[Reel Don]

This topic begs another question. If you catch a walleye that is obviously infected and you are at your limit for the day, should you return the fish to the lake? Seems to me that releasing a fish like that would be a bad idea.