Thread: Roanoke River 4/17-19/12

Went out last Saturday night with Zach and Emily to catch bait down at High Rock Lake and filled up two tanks with about 200 small shad. Also filled up a tank with bass minnows to hopefully have enough bait for 3 days of fishing. Everything looked good through Monday night when we went to bed but durnig the night the temps. spiked in one of the tanks and we lost half of our shad. Ended up emptying the tank and getting all the live shad into one tank which put us late getting up to the river. Got on the river about 12:30 and made one drift below the Rock and didn't even get a bight. Eased back up to the Rock and marked some good looking water so we decided to anchor up and just wait for the afternoon bight to start. Threw out 3 rods off the back and then started pitching some bait toward the bank. From 1 - 3 we picked up 16 stripers and one catfish. I think Zach enjoyed the cat more than the stripers. LOL We had 1 too big to keep, 3 too small, and the rest were good keeper sized fish. At 3 we decided to get off the river and get on to the hotel and have an easy day. Water temps were near 65 when we got off. Caught most of the fish on bass minnows.





Wednesday we were on the river by 8 and by 9 we had our limit. Caught 18 for the day, and again only 3 or 4 were too small, 2 were too big, and the rest were all good fish. We fished up in the river for a bit and heard an owl back up in the woods. I started "hooting" at him like we do here at the house, and 2 owls came right to us on the river. We "talked" to them on the river while we fished and Zach got several pics of them. Tuesday all the fish came while anchored and Wednesday most came while drifting. Water temps started at just over 62 and finished around 65. Most of the fish came off bass minnows and a few of the better ones were caught on shad.







Cold front moved through Wednesday night and it seemed to effect the fish a good bit. On the water around 7 and only caught 8 fish all day. We were very happy to leave with our limit on such few fish. Zach caught a tagged fish and I caught one of the biggest suckers I've ever caught. Water temps were 62 when we got on and didn't reach 65 by the time we left at 1:30. The wildlife guys were there shocking and we noticed that they would shock a good ways down the river only getting one here and one there and then they'd hit a hole and roll up a slew of them. They shocked up a 40 lbr and 30 lbr with about 30 smaller fish out of one hole just below where we were anchored. If you find a hole with some fish in it you'd better stay on them as long as you can. Didn't catch near the numbers we are used to, but had plenty of fun this week with just me and Zach.







Talked to several regulars and guides and some think the fish are there, but the colder temps have them locked down. Others think the fish were up there and then moved back down the river when the temps dropped a week or so ago. Some are catching decent numbers, others are struggling to put a few fish in the boat. Hopefully it will pick up and get more consistent next week. Talked to the game wardens and they said they are seeing plenty of limits coming out of the river. We are supposed to go back next week with my father in law and a buddy and his kids. Holler at me if you see us up there.
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

Yall are making memories that will last a lifetime!