The few surviving adult smallmouth bass in almost 100 miles of the
Shenandoah River and its tributaries are spotted with lesions. These
fish, and many others in the sunfish family, are either dead or dying
of bacterial and fungal infections.

There’ll be no more real fishing on the main stem of the Shenandoah River for three or four years. A wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries predicted a longer wait for the North River – possibly until *2010* before there are 12-inch smallies in there again.

Several experts have linked the fish deaths to the rapid
runoff of sediment and fertilizers during the last week of April.

Read (Staunton News Leader)