Roanoke River Striper Report

**todobien** · 05-05-2008, 03:36 PM

There would be very little inflow from the rain last weekend between Roanoke Rapids stream gage and Weldon. The gage is about half way between Roanoke Rapids dam and Weldon. The only way for water levels to have dropped that I can think of is a big sinkhole sucking it down. Doubt that's the case. How well do you know these folks and how reliable are they. The only other way I can think of it happening is if they fished way down stream near Halifax however that gage only showed an increase from around 25.7 ft on 4/28 up to 26.1 ft and then back down to 25.5 today http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nc/nwis/uv...cd=00065,00060
This is only a change of around 0.5 ft due to the rains last weekend. Halifax is around 10 miles below Weldon. Well below Troublefield Gut or the powerlines.

I typically have good success on falling water levels. The spawn will definitely kill it.

So are you in school at NCSU? What you studying I'm an alum

**ncsuhunter** · 05-05-2008, 09:33 PM

I know em well enough to have one of them in my wedding and know they've been fishing up there for over 20 years now and were 59 fish away starting saturday from hauling in 1000 fish for the week...if these guys say the water is lower than it was then I have to believe them...they tied off to a submerged log on wednesday and the same log was 2 feet out of the water on saturday...unless somebody tied off to it and pulled it off the bottom with their boat the water level had to have changed...i understand that the spawning fish can cause the bite to slow as well...however these guys have been fishing roanoke for a long long time and know what they are doing and when to go catch the fish every year...they also said the fish didn't bite as well during the week when it was windy and if you were there on saturday you know it was definitely windy pretty much all day...when you make a drift from the big rock through troublefield gut multiple times without hooking up on live bait, the bite has definitely slowed...water level change or not, it wasn't a great fishing day, but any day on the water beats a day off it

tightlines

ps...don't go to ncsu...already been there twice...graduated in 2001 with my BS and in 2006 with my MS.

**todobien** · 05-06-2008, 08:14 AM

Well sounds like they have some time on the river. I've spent lots of time up there working on things like trees moving, banks eroding, fish spawning, flows etc. Been fishing there for double digit years and had triple digit catches in a single day too. Been down darn near the whole river from the state line (Lake Gaston) to the Sound so I too have plenty of time on the river as they do an much experience in the physical and hydrologic behavior of the river. A tree big enough to hold a boat in these flows would have a hard time moving but its not impossible. That does sound very strange though based on all the flow data.

Your drift from the big rock to Troublefield gut without hook ups is a sign of lockjaw.

I heard a better class of fish has shown up this week based on electrofishing work by WRC. I also heard there are still lots moving through the Sound. Could add another couple of weeks but this hot weather isn't helping much and no more rain than fell in the upper basin I doubt they'll increase flows from Kerr which would cool the water back down. Spawn fishing can be tough.

Congrats on the dual degrees! Were they in Fish and Wildlife, if so, I may have run into you sometime. Especially if you have a masters.

**davieboy36** · 05-06-2008, 11:24 AM

I hope to go in the next week or so, can't wait to get on em good!

**todobien** · 05-06-2008, 01:32 PM

Here's the updated flow schedule subject to change with rainfall. The flows this week were increased to around 10,000 (looks like Dominion is still trying to sort out the settings to release that dishcarge). This should be ending on or around Friday with flows being cut back to around 6,000 cfs for probably the rest of the spawn. Of course this is subject to change with rain which it sounds like Thurs pm - Fri could be a bit hairy. This increase was to allow some of the research being conducted by Va Tech regarding bank erosion down river due to various release levels.

Catchem up! Try to be there early and late. A large number of the fish last week were suspended which is probably why the flycasters were doing so well. Also if not catching don't be scared to start pitching to shady spots along the bank as if fishing for largemouth. Sometimes as the water heats that will work....blew my mind first time I ever tried as did fishing them under a cork for the suspended fish. If you can find live herring they are like candy.

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