| Weekly Roanoke River Fishing Report |
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Published at www.ncwildlife.org Visit the Striped Bass Fishing page for more information on striped bass fishing in the Roanoke River. Roanoke River Fishing Report: May 17 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: 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. Roanoke River Fishing Report: May 10 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. 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: 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. 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. Roanoke River Fishing Report: May 3 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: 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. Roanoke River Fishing Report: April 25 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. Roanoke River Fishing Report: April 19 “We’re heading towards the peak.” The “peak” Jeremy McCargo is referring to is the peak of striped bass fishing on the Roanoke River for this year. Anglers are using a variety of baits – some more successful than others depending on where you’re fishing. According to McCargo, fresh cut bait is working well in the lower river, and in the upper river, live bait, typically gizzard and threadfin shad, are doing the trick. Artificial lures, such as soft plastic, fluke-type baits, seem to be hitting the mark as well. Find out more about what tackle to use here. In these last few weeks of striped bass harvest, 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 currently 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 a crisp new Benjamin ($100). Learn more about the tagging programs and what to do if you catch a tagged fish here. Because shad are still in the upper river, anglers should know the shad regulations and also how to identify American shad from its closely related cousin, the hickory shad. Within the inland waters of the Roanoke River and its tributaries, only one American (white) shad can be included in the daily limit of 10 shad per angler. Inland waters on the mainstem of the Roanoke River are upstream of the U.S. Highway 258 Bridge near Scotland Neck. Roanoke River Fishing Report: April 12 No matter where you’re fishing in the Roanoke River now, you can catch stripers. That’s the assessment coming from N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologists and creel clerks this week. From Plymouth to Jamesville to Williamston, even in Hamilton, and all the way up river to Weldon, anglers are catching stripers. Although not in large numbers yet, the fish are starting to move in to the spawning grounds at Weldon in greater numbers. Fisheries biologists Jeremy McCargo and Ben Ricks sampled the river on Monday at Weldon, collecting about 150 striped bass. They collect stripers as part of an annual spawning stock monitoring survey, which starts in mid-March and lasts through mid-May. They count, measure and weigh the fish before returning them back to the river. Before they release the stripers, biologists with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) tag many of the fish with yellow tags. This spawning stock monitoring is one of two research projects biologists are conducting on Roanoke River striped bass. The second project, a joint effort between the Commission, DMF and N.C. State University, is studying the striped bass migration patterns and mortality rates in the river. These fish are collected and tagged with red tags. In addition to the red tag, stripers tagged during this project also have a small sonic transmitter surgically implanted inside the fish. Click here for a poster with more information. Anglers at Weldon reported catching two tagged fish on Monday, and McCargo is urging anglers to be on the look-out for fish with either yellow or red tags. Anglers who catch a striped bass with a yellow tag and return the tag or report the tag number to DMF can collect $5 or a fishing hat. Anglers who catch a striped bass with a red tag can collect $100 if they return the tag to NCSU researchers. “We strongly encourage angler participation in these tagging programs,” McCargo said. “When anglers return these tags, it helps us collect the data necessary to manage striped bass populations more effectively. As a bonus, lucky anglers can get a little extra cash, too.” Previous Report: The fishing activity and effort on the Roanoke River this week remain relatively the same as in the previous two weeks: still plenty of shad at the Weldon and Edwards Ferry boat ramps for both bank and boat anglers with a few striped bass showing up at the spawning grounds in Weldon. The majority of stripers, however, are still in the lower river, down around Plymouth and Williamston. About the only difference in the report this week is the water flow. It’s up, way up. That’s according to Jeremy McCargo, fisheries biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission who attributes the higher water flows with the recent heavy rains. “Flows have increased dramatically from what they have been since the striper season opened,” McCargo said. “And higher water flows can certainly influence fishing on the river.” Check out the current river conditions at Williamston and Roanoke Rapids by visiting the Striped Bass Fishing page. You can also find other information on this page, such as boating access areas along the river and 2012 Striped Bass Regulations for the Roanoke River. Boating anglers should remember that with water levels being so high, the river can be particularly treacherous because of dislodged limbs, logs and in some cases trees from up river locations. McCargo warns anglers to be on the lookout for these floating hazards and to wear their PFDs at all times. American Shad Regulation Information Within the inland waters of the Roanoke River and its tributaries, only one American (white) shad can be included in the daily limit of 10 shad per angler. Inland waters on the mainstem of the Roanoke River are upstream of the US Highway 258 Bridge near Scotland Neck. For a downloadable, color pamphlet identifying the species of shad and herring found in North Carolina waters, click here.
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