As published on www.ncwildlife.org by the NC Wildlife Commission

After a flurry of heavy fishing activity during late April and early May, fishing effort on the Roanoke River has slowed dramatically this week. The few fishermen giving it a try, however, are still reporting decent catches of striped bass. Jeremy McCargo, Ben Ricks and Kevin Dockendorf, fisheries biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, sampled the river with electrofishing techniques on Tuesday and collected around 400 striped bass. The fish were measured, tagged, and released. While on the river, McCargo reported only four boats fishing for striped bass.

As in the last few weeks, stripers have been scattered from the Weldon boat ramp downstream beyond Troublefield Gut. McCargo’s sampling revealed fish were schooled up in pockets, indicating that anglers should consider moving around to find fish. Water temperatures at Weldon are approaching the upper end of the preferred striped bass spawning range. This means the annual spawning run will soon be coming to an end, but higher water temperature also means catch-and-release mortality can increase. Be sure you’re following some simple rules to keep stripers alive to be caught another day.

From April 1 through June 30, anglers can use only a barbless hook or a lure with a single barbless hook (or the barb bent down) when fishing in inland waters of the Roanoke River upstream of the U.S. Hwy. 258 bridge. Also, anglers who are using top-water lures, or any artificial plug, should replace the two barbless hooks with a single barbless hook in the middle of the bait to reduce striper mortality.

Other ways to keep stripers alive are:

• Keep the fish in the water when unhooking it
• Use de-hookers whenever possible to help remove hooks quickly
• Cut the line if the hook cannot be removed easily
• Use a landing net made of rubber or knotless nylon, if necessary
• Use small, non-offset circle hooks, preferably ones with the least amount of distance between the hook point and shank.

Other studies have shown that striped bass caught on small, barbless circle hooks are usually hooked in the jaw, which means they have a much greater chance of survival after being released than fish hooked in the throat or gut. Anglers can get free samples of Eagle Claw barbless circle hooks from Commission creel clerks working at the Weldon boat ramp.

Download and print a pocket-sized card on “Releasing Stripers Safely.”

Safety Note

High flows following periods of low flow dislodge limbs, logs and in some cases, trees from up river locations. Boaters should take extreme caution when traveling on the water and be on the look-out for these floating hazards! Similarly, extreme low flows can expose rock outcroppings and make many areas too shallow to access.

For additional safety measures, the Commission urges boaters to file a float plan before getting on the river. Filling out a float plan and giving it to a reliable person before you leave the ramp can be a life-saving decision.

Check out the North Carolina Boating Checklist to be sure you’re complying with on-the-water rules and safety recommendations.

The peak of the striped bass spawning season on the Roanoke River has likely passed, but plenty of fish remain on the spawning grounds and anglers are continuing to catch them.
 
Jeremy McCargo, Ben Ricks and Kevin Dockendorf, fisheries biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, sampled the river on Tuesday and collected approximately 600 fish. As has been the case most of the season, McCargo reported that the fish were scattered from the boat ramp past Troublefield Gut. Although the majority of the sample was smaller fish, the stripers ranged in size from 12 inches through 36 inches and included female stripers that McCargo said were “fresh fish” meaning they had yet to spawn.
 
Catch-and- release fishing has been good since the harvest season closed at the end of April. According to Commission creel clerk, Pete Kornegay, fishing this past weekend was particularly good, with Saturday and Sunday seeing excellent catches. Kornegay also reports that anglers continued to have success at Weldon Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
 
Anglers fishing top water lures are having success in the early morning and late evening hours, whereas anglers fishing with live bait, flukes, bucktails and flies are having success throughout the day.

McCargo encourages anglers to help keep stripers alive to catch next year by following a few rules. From April 1 through June 30, anglers can use only a barbless hook or a lure with a single barbless hook (or the barb bent down) when fishing in inland waters of the Roanoke River upstream of the U.S. Hwy. 258 bridge. Also, anglers who are using top-water lures, or any artificial plug, should replace the two barbless hooks with a single barbless hook in the middle of the bait to reduce striper mortality.

Other ways to keep stripers alive are:
•Keep the fish in the water when unhooking it
•Use de-hookers whenever possible to help remove hooks quickly
•Cut the line if the hook cannot be removed easily
•Use a landing net made of rubber or knotless nylon, if necessary
•Use small, non-offset circle hooks, preferably ones with the least amount of distance between the hook point and shank.

Other studies have shown that striped bass caught on small, barbless circle hooks are usually hooked in the jaw, which means they have a much greater chance of survival after being released than fish hooked in the throat or gut. Anglers can get free samples of Eagle Claw barbless circle hooks from Commission creel clerks working at the Weldon boat ramp.
 
Safety Note

High flows following periods of low flow dislodge limbs, logs and in some cases, trees from up river locations.  Boaters should take extreme caution when traveling on the water and be on the look-out for these floating hazards!  Similarly, extreme low flows can expose rock outcroppings and make many areas too shallow to access. 

For additional safety measures, the Commission urges boaters to file a float plan before getting on the river. Filling out a float plan and giving it to a reliable person before you leave the ramp can be a life-saving decision.

Check out the North Carolina Boating Checklist to be sure you’re complying with on-the-water rules and safety recommendations.

As published on www.ncwildlife.org by the NC Wildlife Commission

Striped bass harvest season in the Roanoke River Management Area closed on Monday, and anglers fishing at Weldon caught good numbers of fish during the last weekend of the season. Creel clerks Frank McBride and Pete Kornegay interviewed numerous anglers who caught their limit of two fish per day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Although the fishing – and catching – were really good at Weldon this past weekend, the lower river saw virtually no action – a clear indication that the fish are now on their spawning grounds.

Jeremy McCargo, a fisheries biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, along with fellow biologist Ben Ricks, sampled the river at Weldon on Tuesday, collecting about 300 fish. Their catches showed that the fish were scattered from Little River past Troublefield Gut, as were the anglers.

McCargo doesn’t expect the fish to be around much longer. Current water temperatures are in the optimal spawning range, and with record high temperatures forecasted over the next few days, the peak of the spawning season is about over. This means anglers who are interested in doing some catch-and-release striper fishing this year should plan a trip to Weldon soon. 

This also means that as water temperatures increase, so does striper mortality from catch-and-release angling. Studies have shown that catch-and-release mortality increases dramatically when water temperatures reach 70oF. From April 1 through June 30, anglers can use only a barbless hook or a lure with a single barbless hook (or the hook bent down) when fishing in inland waters of the Roanoke River upstream of the U.S. Hwy. 258 bridge. Using barbless hooks is one way to reduce striper mortality. Other ways to help keep stripers alive are:
•Keep the fish in the water when unhooking it
•Use de-hookers whenever possible to help remove hooks quickly
•Cut the line if the hook cannot be removed easily
•Use a landing net made of rubber or knotless nylon, if necessary
•Use small, non-offset circle hooks, preferably ones with the least amount of distance between the hook point and shank.
 
Other studies have shown that striped bass caught on small, barbless circle hooks are usually hooked in the jaw, which means they have a much greater chance of survival after being released than fish hooked in the throat or gut. Anglers can get free samples of Eagle Claw barbless circle hooks from Commission creel clerks working at the Weldon boat ramp.

Safety Note
 
High flows following periods of low flow dislodge limbs, logs and in some cases, trees from up river locations.  Boaters should take extreme caution when traveling on the water and be on the look-out for these floating hazards!  Similarly, extreme low flows can expose rock outcroppings and make many areas too shallow to access. 

For additional safety measures, the Commission urges boaters to file a float plan before getting on the river. Filling out a float plan and giving it to a reliable person before you leave the ramp can be a life-saving decision.

Check out the North Carolina Boating Checklist to be sure you’re complying with on-the-water rules and safety recommendations.

The largest disc-dog competition series in the world is coming to Roanoke Rapids! An Open Qualifier for the 2012 Hyperflite Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship will be held on Saturday, May 5th, and Sunday, May 6th, at 9 am, at T.J. Davis Recreation Center, 400 East 6^th Street, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, 27870, where athletic canines will be, literally, jumping for joy.

Admission is free for all spectators. Novice and veteran canine disc enthusiasts alike are encouraged to compete. All competitors will receive a free official Hyperflite Competition Standard flying disc, and the top teams will receive awards. Down East Animal Refuge (DEAR) will be selling concessions at the event to benefit there rescue and adoption efforts in our area. To learn more about DEAR, visit their website www.downeastanimalrefuge.org.

Contestants and their canine teammates will earn points for tricks ranging from simple throws to unbelievable acrobatics. The event welcomes mixed-breed as well as purebred dogs. In fact, many of the canine athletes expected to compete were rescued from animal shelters.

Hyperflite Flying Discs sponsors the Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship Series which features more than 100 local-level competitions, nine U.S. Qualifiers, five International Qualifiers, a European Championship, and the World Championship.

Hyperflite sparked a canine disc revolution when it released the Jawz disc — the world’s toughest canine competition disc — designed especially for dentally-obsessive canines. Hyperflite’s training products, Disc Dogs! The Complete Guide (350 pages, 500 color photos) and Disc Dog Training DVD (an hour-long instructional DVD) have introduced thousands to the health and exercise benefits of canine disc play.

To learn more about canine disc play and competition, visit http://skyhoundz.com/discdogsrock.html.

Contact Ray Lowman, of the Mid-Atlantic Disc Dog Club (M.A.D. Dog), at 410-263-7128 for event specific information. For online pre-registration go to: www.mad-dogs.org.

As published on the NC Wildlife Commission website

In this last week of striped bass harvest, the fishing has been up and down, hit or miss, depending on when you’re fishing and where you’re fishing. While most everyone expected that the season would be in high gear by now, cooler, wetter weather put a damper on the fishing action over the last week – a trend that hasn’t picked up quite yet.

The cooler water temperatures resulted in a decrease in spawning activity, which means the fish should be in Weldon for a good while longer, waiting for the water temperatures to go up. Just how much longer is anybody’s guess. If you want to go fishing, and particularly if you want to keep your daily limit of two fish, you need to head to the river before next Monday, which is the last day of the harvest season.

Even fisheries biologists, with their electrofishing gear, aren’t immune to the weather whimsies that can affect fishing effort. Jeremy McCargo and other fisheries biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission sampled the river at Weldon last Thursday and this past Monday. Thursday was their best collection day so far – about 630 fish were collected and tagged. On Monday, however, they collected only 300.

McCargo attributes the atypical decline to the changing weather conditions that have the fish scattered all over the river. Although most of the fish should be on the spawning grounds at Weldon by this time of year, anglers were continuing to have decent success around Hamilton and areas even further downstream – that is, until the day before yesterday when it was like “someone flipped a switch,” and the fishing went to nothing, according to creel clerk, Pete Kornegay. He and fellow creel clerk, Frank McBride, reported very little fishing effort and limited success at Williamston on Tuesday.

Fishing news can change quickly, however. On Wednesday, Ricky Mobley of the Roanoke Sportsman in Williamston reported that anglers were again catching fish at Williamston – along the bank, anglers were throwing artificial lures and reeling fish in, while boating anglers were having success with cut bait.

Did we mention that your fishing success depends on WHERE you’re fishing and WHEN you’re fishing?

Mobley also said that it had been one of the best rock seasons he has seen in a long time. “They’re still catching ‘em and have been since March 1,” Mobley said on Tuesday. While fishing may be good down river, the Weldon area has plenty of fish as well. However, some anglers were doing well, but others weren’t. “Most anglers were drifting downriver to cover lots of water,” McCargo said. “Once they found a school of fish, they would make multiple drifts in that location.”

On Monday, quite a few boats appeared to be catching the most fish from the rapids at the Weldon boat ramp down past the big rock, McCargo said.

Bobby Colston, of Colston’s Tackle Box on Hwy. 48 south of Gaston, reported on Wednesday that most of the fish being caught were between the Big Rock, down to the Powerline, with Troublefield Gut, which is pretty much in the middle area, seeing a lot of fishing action.

He said most anglers were throwing live bait, although a few were using bucktails and sassy shad lures.

Find out more about what tackle to use here.

Check out the how to measure a fish properly document to make sure your two keepers-a-day are within the legal limit.

Also a couple of things to remember while you’re on the river this weekend are the two tagging programs under way. If you land a tagged striper, you could be the lucky recipient of a hat from the Division of Marine Fisheries, $5, or $100. Learn more about the tagging programs and what to do if you catch a tagged fish here.

And finally, check out this cool video highlighting an earlier sampling day of the 2012 striped bass electrofishing and associated tagging studies occurring this year on the Roanoke River. The video was shot and posted by Capt. Rod “Ponytail” Thomas. Great work!

Safety Note

 High flows following periods of low flow dislodge limbs, logs and in some cases, trees from up river locations. Boaters should take extreme caution when traveling on the water and be on the look-out for these floating hazards! Similarly, extreme low flows can expose rock outcroppings and make many areas too shallow to access.

For additional safety measures, the Commission urges boaters to file a float plan before getting on the river. Filling out a float plan and giving it to a reliable person before you leave the ramp can be a life-saving decision.

Check out the North Carolina Boating Checklist to be sure you’re complying with on-the-water rules and safety recommendations.