Written by Christina Gordon Wednesday, 21 April 2010 13:57

Week of April 23, 2010

By Rick Goines

This weekend will find several Rockfish tournaments in our locale.  Tarboro’s TASS club is the force behind the annual John Cherry Memorial Rockfish Rodeo On The Tar.  Your last chance to register is this Friday night 7 PM at the Captain’s meeting at the boat landing in Riverfront Park, Tarboro.   Fishermen or not, they have some nice, fun family activities and entertainment scheduled for Saturday on the waterfront.  This tournament and related activities is getting bigger and bigger every year.  Pretty soon the word “festival” will probably be included in the name of this much-anticipated annual event.

Benefiting the Boys and Girls Club of Halifax County, the 2^nd annual Rockfish Rodeo, on the Roanoke River, at the Weldon Wildlife Landing, is also this Saturday. Your registration deadline is Saturday morning 7:30 AM at the Rockfish Park in the “Rockfish Capital of the World,” Weldon, NC!

Both of these events are very worthwhile with appropriate, deserving beneficiaries.  Support them, please, in whatever way you can.

Steven Scott tells us his dad, Wayne Scott, bought some fresh herring at the local fish market, and headed for the Bell’s Bridge area of the Tar River.  Of course, he was targeting Rockfish.  After a while with no rockfish action, he decided to tie on a shad spoon to hopefully catch SOMETHING.   Bam, his rod started doing the funky chicken, and lo and behold, on the other end was a beautiful 21” six-pound Rockfish!  You never know….

David Mears joined the “look-what-I-found” club recently when he was tossing his shad rig at the pipe on NC Hwy 97 in Rocky Mount.   With his rod doubled over, he thought he had a nice “White,” but those horizontal stripes on the fish told a different story.  It was a feisty 22” Rockfish.

Way to go guys!  Alls well that ends well! 

I am excited about this upcoming weekend.  I will be out chasing Rocky and Rockette with family and friends Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the Roanoke River.  It’s my very own, personal super bowl of fishing.   I am like a kid at Christmas with enthusiastic anticipation.  I intend to tell you all about it next week, if I don’t expire from all the excitement, and if I do perish, please know that I died with a smile on my fat face.

NCWRC shock troops have been electro-shocking the Tar and Roanoke Rivers to survey shad & rockfish, as well as collect specimens for the state’s fisheries.  Several years ago, sitting in Captain George Beckwith’s boat, I watched these guys juice-up a 40-pound Rockfish on the Roanoke River in Weldon.  Very impressive!   More can be seen in the video on their website at http://www.ncwildlife.org/videos/Fishing/Electrofishing.htm.  It’s your license fees and tax dollars at work for YOU!  Check it out!

Hotspot of the Week -  Shad and Rockfish don’t co-exist very well together, mainly because shad is on the A-Y-C-E buffet for Striped Bass.  As the Rockfish invade the Tar and Roanoke to spawn, most self-respecting shad in eastern NC are heading for either the Pamlico or Albemarle Sounds pronto.  Mission accomplished, and head for the hills, so to speak.  Reports come in daily that Rockfish action is getting better and better every time the sun rises.  Keeper season is over April 30, so if you want some fresh Rockfish fillets on the grill, you better hurry.  Familiarize yourself with specific rules and regulations that apply BEFORE you get out there.   I guarantee you; those high-dollar fines will ruin your day.   Don’t let it happen.

Rick’s Soapbox – Wifey, Linda approached the TASS brass recently about adding a ladies category/division to their famous annual March shad tournament.  “Tight Lines” mentioned it in our shad tournament wrap-up article.  The board met, and agreed to do so in 2011.  I just love it when a plan comes together.

Advertising and promotion was my life for 35 years.  Pardon me, but I always think in those terms.  Old habits die hard, you know.  I have an idea.  To encourage the ladies participation in future shad tournaments and overall fishing, I propose that “Tight Lines” organize a hands-on seminar the Saturday before the shad tournament begins in March 2011.  We could hold it at River Front Park in Tarboro and include some good instruction and demonstrations from several experienced, knowledgeable shad anglers.  I am NOT an expert, but I know where they hang out.  If they won’t help us, I will write bad things about them!  Take casting for example.  You can read all about it in a book, but there is no substitute for actually flinging that sucker out there a few dozen times, under the watchful, helpful eyes of some of the Tar River’s finest shadsters.  Is shadsters a word, or did I make that up?

Shad fishing is NOT about brute strength, but more about finesse.  Let’s face it guys, ladies usually have us beat in the finesse department.  Ladies could and should be excellent shad fisherwomen.  All I want to do is help point them in the right direction.   Whadda ya think? 

Give me some feedback on this.  Any interest out there?  Talk to me, please!

Stories, pictures, tall tales, and little white lies are always welcome at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Caption for picture  – Bryan Gentry of Roanoke, Virginia, fishing the Roanoke River in Weldon with Captain George Beckwith of Down East Guide Service caught this 25-pound Rockfish jigging a White Berkley Gulp! Alive! 5 inch Jerk Shad.  Bryan said this big girl was full of eggs, so they gently released her back in the water to go forth and multiply.

See you on the water, my friend!