Wal Mart at Christmas

I'm looking forward to next week and the end of the "keeper" season. It's like a zoo out there. It feels like being in Wal Mart at Christmas. Yesterday wasn't bad, cool and overcast and just a few boats. Greg and I caught a few dozen fish on the fly with a two boat trip yesterday afternoon. This morning was very tough, the boat traffic has really got these fish screwed up. We managed to catch a couple dozen this morning on bait. Five people on the boat and we got 10 nice keepers, some small fish and some small keepers that we released. I'm heading to the coast for the weekend and getting away from the craziness. Greg, Ray and Dan are going to battle the crowds and try to make the best of the last keeper weekend.

Things should dramatically improve next week.

George

cold front, fresh fish and sleeping late




This cold front was a Blessing, it stopped the spawn in it's tracks, but it also stopped the early topwater bite. That will improve when things warm up.

Greg and I were at the landing at 5:30 am, ready to go, fortunately our customers overslept and showed up at 7:30. They missed the nonexistent topwater bite and Greg and I got a couple hours of shut eye in the truck.

The cooler temps, clouds and rain trigged another push of fish from downriver. We caught a lot of males that have not started spawning. This is an excellent sign for the next couple of weeks. I was beginning to worry that the spawn from the past two days was the beginning of the end.

Yesterday afternoon I saw several hundred "fights" or groups of spawning fish, each spawning group had up to 100 fish in it. Truly an unbelievable sight and I'm sure that we'll see a lot more of it over the next couple of weeks. Here are a couple of pics....

Early bird gets the worm

We put overboard at 5:30 am this morning and had some awesome topwater action for a couple of hours. The fish spawned hard last night and tonight, it's an awesome spectacle, but makes for some tough middle of the day and afternoon fishing. We caught about 20 herring and made both trips happen. No more big fish, I think that those big females are spawning and getting out of town. Reportedly there are still a lot of fish downriver, hopefully they'll head this way and we'll get another wave. This approaching cold front should help things as well with cooler water temps.

Tight lines, calm seas and God Bless,

George

Early and late.

The fish spawned hard this evening, due to low water and warm temps, about 2 weeks earlier than normal. This explains why the fishing was so slow through the day today. They were suspended and gathering up for the afternoon fun. They definately were not in the mood to eat anything that I had to offer this morning.

We made some adjustments and caught a couple dozen fish on herring, live and cut bait, including one 25 pounder. From here on out, we'll still have some great fishing, but it will be early in the morning and late in the afternoon. For morning charters, we're going to try and leave the dock by 6 am, for afternoon charters, we'll try to leave at 3 pm and fish until dark.

George

How to do it.


7/0 Eagle Claw cirlce hook. Tight line. No slack. When he bites, raise the rod and reel. If he comes off, you didn't want that fish anyway, drop the rod and let HER eat it. Immediately raise the rod and reel as soon as you THINK that you have a bite. A light squeeze on the belly will tell you if it is a ripe buck or a female. Release the rows, kill the bucks. Sperm is cheap.

And Ray Brown, thanks for the publicity and kiss my butt.

some more pics from this past week

and released alive. How many river herring do you think that these gals ate on their way to Weldon?

No animals were harmed in the making of this picture......







.....except for a few river herring. I'm sure not enough to impact the recovery. At least no more impact than these herring eating stripers that we released in excellent condition.

My biggest striper from the Roanoke River


John Rea caught the biggest striper that has ever come on my boat today. She weighed 34 pounds. She was hooked in the corner of the mouth on a 7/0 Eagle Claw circle hook and guess what.....a live river herring. She was weighed in a landing net, so that her belly and eggs were supported. I didn't have the heart to kill her and she was released in excellent condition.

In John's lap is my biggest catch on the river, sitting beside him is the biggest catch of my life, Anna, my wife.

river herring and my beef with the CCA

First and foremost, river herring stocks are in trouble. No debate there. Why? No one really knows but everyone is pointing fingers, we'll get into that later. But no, it's not current NC commercial fishing pressure, water quality or recreational harvest.

River herring have been in trouble for a long time and there is no overnight fix. The recovery is going to be a long process and we, both recreational and commercial fishermen, should make sacrifices.

I'm willing to make those sacrifices and suggested to a CCA Finfish Committee that in order to start the recovery that recreational anglers' bag limits be reduced from 25/person to 5/person. This is a huge reduction, but still allows recreational fishermen to possess a few river herring for food or bait.

Most recreational fishermen would be satisfied with a reduced limit, perhaps 5/person. Whether the limit is 5 river herring/person or zero, the recreational impact is so minimal, it would not affect the recovery time. So why not allow some limited harvest to continue?

I think that the CCA did not recognize how important the river herring fishery is to recreational anglers. They ignored the reduced limit, which was endorsed by the River Herring Advisory Committee and continued to lobby for a total moratorium.

The CCA successfully lobbied the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. The result is that after July 1 and during the spring run on the Roanoke River next year, it will be illegal to use river herring for bait. That is going to upset a lot of recreational anglers who thought that the CCA was representing their interests.

This is the last year that we'll be able to use river herring for bait and in the long run, it's not going to make any difference on river herring stocks. Sure, there are other great baits and artificials work great, but there is no better bait for big rockfish than a live river herring, especially during the first few weeks of the run. Right now I'm pissed that I'm going to lose money and my season will be shortened next year on the Roanoke.

On the other hand, this whole thing demonstrates how the CCA is gaining political power and how they can be an important factor in future fisheries management. I don't want to burn any bridges, but right now I'm pissed and it's really hard for me to support an organization who has taken money out of my pocket.

Got a response? Send it to me via info@pamlicoguide.com

The bite is on.















Pictures of a couple of good ones that the NCWRC shocked up today, they are headed to the hatchery. Yesterday afternoon I fun fished with family and we caught a 18 pounder and a 25 pounder. Here is a picture of a 22 pounder that Greg caught today.

FYI Openings for this week are Wed 1/2 am, Saturday full, Sunday 1/2 am, Monday 1/2 am.

A slug of water from the dam, a slug of fish from the sound


They finaly let some water lose from the lakes this morning and the river rose about a foot and a half. The rising water triggered a push of fish from downstream. We caught plenty of fish, about half of them were in the slot. Not the 100 fish days, but still great fishing.

Greg kicked my butt again today, his guys caught a 16 pounder and a 11 pounder. He's doing his best to protect the river herring.

Roanoke report 4/13



Rocks upstream....



Rocks
downstream....





Rock in the slot.

All in all a pretty decent first day on the Roanoke. Nothing red hot, but we caught some nice fish, about 40 in all. Nothing huge, but about a dozen of them were "in the slot", between 22 and 27 inches. Greg had the hot hand today, he got the big bite, estimated at about 25 pounds, but the hook pulled at the boat.

Reports are really good from Williamston, lots of fish. The state shocked up a 51 pounder on Monday. We're going to do what we can to protect the herring this year.....by killing some of those big stripers.

Save the herring, kill a striper.

The CCA doesn't represent this recreational fisherman.

A real fishing report, off to the Roanoke, contact info

I splashed the tower boat yesterday and charged out after the bonito at AR 315 and 330 this morning. I got there just in time to piss on the fire. A couple were caught, but not by us. We did manage to land 3 bluefish and a 3 inch sea bass. (The bluefish were about 3 times the size of the sea bass). We headed down the beach to sight cast the puppy drum but didn't see any. I later heard that it was pretty good in the dirty water. We ran into the albies at Beaufort Inlet, but we couldn't get the darn things to bite. I guess that I needed Greg there to show me how to do it.

Hey, all fishing reports can't be good.

Greg and I are heading to the Roanoke tomorrow and will be fishing pretty much every day until late May. I'm not sure how much internet service we will have, so if you need to reach us, try me on the cell phone: 252-671-3474.

See you on the river,

George

fishing is still red hot in Costa Rica

I spoke with Danny on the Spanish Fly last night. They caught 18 for 30 yesterday. He said that the last two hours of the day was the best he's ever seen. His charter was pretty worn out and they left the bite and headed home. Two other boats that stayed each had over 80 sailfish bites. Guatahoo?

stripers on the Neuse, LOTS of albies on the coast


Capt. Greg Voliva and I fished with George Haislip on the Neuse River yesterday afternoon and we caught about a dozen stripers, 4 of them were decent keepers like this one.

Greg took his son, Tanner to Beaufort Inlet today to catch sea mullets and they got covered up in large false albacore. This springtime fishery is often overlooked, because their arrival is not as predictable as the fall fishery. In addition to the 15 pound plus albies, you can also expect some nice, very edible, atlantic bonito.

Drop us a line if you are interested in either destination, we can get you on the water over the next few days, prior to our departure to the Roanoke River for the rest of the month.

Tight lines, calm seas and God Bless,

George

Stripers have arrived!!!!

I don't have first hand knowledge, hopefully in the next few days, but I did get a very reliable report that the stripers have arrived in large numbers on the lower Roanoke River. Things should be really good up at Weldon by the end of next week, if not, we're going downriver after them. Greg and I will be based out of Roanoke Rapids from April 13-May 15.

Roanoke Report, trout and Costa Rica

Not much to report from the Roanoke, the water is VERY low. They were supposed to let some water lose on April 1, but that has been delayed until water temps are closer to spawning range. Reports from downriver are slow, apparantly the fish are still "staging" in the sound.

The good news is that the low water means a lot of salt in the Neuse River. This should be excellent for trout, tarpon and drum fishing this summer. The poons will be up near New Bern again.

Capt. Ray Massengill fished two afternoons this week and had several trout 3-5 pounds, also stripers and largemouth bass up to 6 pounds.

From Costa Rica, Kit Taylor just got back from a 3 day trip and totaled 16 sails and a nice blue marlin.

Fishing Reports Archives