Thread: Roanoke River trip a success!

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Well, we usually go up to Weldon for several days of fishing, and this week was our first trip of the year. Left out Tuesday morning at 4:30am (after working on the boat 'till 12:30am) and headed to Jordan. Caught all the shad the tank would hold in one or two casts. Culled them to get the best and let Zachary try his hand at his newest fishing technique -- throwing a cast net. He had a good time and even brought in a couple dozen shad to boot. Went to Wilsonville and filled the truck up with gas and picked up 5+ dozen bass minows as well. Headed over to Raleigh to pick up my father in law and headed to Weldon. On the river and fishing by 10:30 am. Caught our limit off of shad by 1:00pm and then used up the 5+ dozen bass minows to save the shad for Wednesday. Ended up with about 80 in the boat with 6 keepers for the day.



Up at 7:00 am on Wednesday and on the river at 8:00am. My brother was on the way with his boat so we made one drift while waiting for them to get there. After one drift we had 33 in the boat with 5 keepers in the livewell. Met my brother at the ramp, got some minnows from him, and helped him get down the river and started as this was his first trip on the river. Fished till around 3:00 pm and ended up with 84 in the boat and 7 keepers total for the day. My brothers boat didn't keep up with #'s but we figured they had about 35 total and 5 keepers total.





Was out of bait after we got off the water on Wednesday so we headed to the lakes up river to try and net some shad. Ended up catching about 70 shad and got to bed around 11:30pm. Got up at 7am on Thursday and on the river again by 8:30am. Only made two drifts and was out of shad by 11:00 am. 33 fish in the boat and 10 keepers total. Was really wishing we had about 70 more shad, but were well pleased with the good catch in such a little time. Caught two 21 3/4" keepers today for the two biggest of the trip. Cleaned the shad tank out and straightened up the boat on the river and headed for home. Used around 400 shad/minnows in three days of fishing.





All in all a great trip. Most of the fish were 16"-17" and no fish over 22" caught. Zachary did catch a tagged fish, which was a first for us. My father in law had another tagged fish up to the boat, but lossed it just at the net. Heading back up on Monday for the final two days of the season with a friend of mine so hopefully we'll have another report next week. Got a new (to me) boat the week before the trip and was very well pleased with the boat and how it worked.

here are some pics to go with the story...



This is Zach's tagged fish

Sounds like a great trip for you guys. Me and Cuz just got back from our first trip to Weldon for the year. The bite was CRAZY Thursday evening when we got there, catching approximately 40-45 stripers in a few hours. One nice one jerked the rod out of Cuz's hands! Now I can laugh too since I lost one about 5 years ago. We had a great trip but it was really packed with boats. Seemed like anyone with live shad or bass minnows was hooked up constantly, just not many big fish yet.

good stuff Mike, thanks for sharing,
I fished there yesterday, we boated over 100 on flies only, what an awesome fishery.
took a bit of video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxuyfijGUhY

enjoy and good fishin
steve

That was one heck of a trip!

Wow! Nice Trip Guys. What Kind Of Boat Did You Get. Looks Nice In The Pics.

Mike/Zach,here is a picture of the hat I got for a tagged fish,its a nice hat.I would recommend the hat over the $5.00,plus the info you will get on that fish,like where and when he was tagged and how many miles he has traveled..Congrat on the trip and thanks for sharing.sam

The "new" boat is a 1987 Bay Hawk center console with a Yamaha 115 on it. About 7' across in the middle. Lots more room than my old 15' glasstream bass boat. The "new" one also has a bimini top on it. Makes it nice when it's raining or hot, but I stay out from under it when I'm fishing in case I need to get serious with a fish .
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

Hey mike down there can you put a pontoon boat in there with little trouble?