Roanoke River Report

Went up to the Roanoke on Wednesday. Left the house around 5am and headed to Jordan to catch bait. Had to look a little for 'em, but finally got 2 bait tanks full and headed for Raleigh around 8am. Picked up father in law and was on the river and fishing by 10:45am. Had our limit by 1:30pm and fished till about 3pm. Thursday we were on the river around 8:30am and had our limit by 1:30pm again. Wednesday and Thursday the wind was absolutely terrible. I think it really hurt our catch rate. Went up river to the lakes and caught bait Thursday evening. They were scattered and hard to catch, but finally had about 4-5 dozen for Friday. Friday we were fishing by around 8:30am and had our limit by 11:30am. Fished till about 1:30pm and called it a day. Caught just over 90 fish in three days, with about 30 of them being "keeper" size. Biggest fish was 21 1/2". Caught 3 catfish that went about 1 1/2lbs. to 3lbs. Water temps hovered right around the 58-61 degree range. Didn't catch as many as last year, but still a good 3 days of fishing. Heading back up with a friend on Monday and hoping to fish till Thursday. Met Albiechaser at the ramp one morning, but didn't have time to chat with the line of trucks/boats behind us. Good luck to everyone heading up this week, hopefully the water temps. will jump on up and the fish will really turn on.
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

Day 1 Limit
http://i44.tinypic.com/al5535.jpg

Day 2 Limit
http://i39.tinypic.com/2is6p7n.jpg

Day Three Limit
http://i39.tinypic.com/rkpgzm.jpg

Tagged Fish
http://i39.tinypic.com/2nsz7d.jpg

Hi Mike, glad you had a good time an got home safe, good seeing you on Thursday, I'll be up there next week too, sure was alot of boats out there, makes for tough fishing, we shot way up river to the gap first thing.
hooked a few here an there on the fly, but had most of our action with a few doubles in the little river, the highlite of the day was, I hooked a monter 4foot gar. (belly hooked him). we were up river at the time and I thought I had one of those 30lbders lol
jim pulled up the achor and off we went, that fish put me way into my backing.
what a fight. fun stuff.
have a great day
steve

No pics of the gar???? Glad to have the chance to meet ya. I've never been up river from the ramp, usually fish from the big rock to the power lines. I do spend a little time in the little river every day though. I bet you got all tor up when that gar hooked up, I would have loved to have watched the fun!!!! I'll c-ya next week, flag me down if ya see me coming through.
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

I'll see you there tuedsday and wedesday. Hope I bring good luck. You see the 40 lber on the ncwrc website? lOOKS LIKE MY BELLY.

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Originally Posted by mikefish

No pics of the gar???? Glad to have the chance to meet ya. I've never been up river from the ramp, usually fish from the big rock to the power lines. I do spend a little time in the little river every day though. I bet you got all tor up when that gar hooked up, I would have loved to have watched the fun!!!! I'll c-ya next week, flag me down if ya see me coming through.
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

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yes jim took a few quick shots, when it was in the water, he's still up at the lake house, when he gets home to raleigh he'll upload em. that fish wouldnt fit in our net, that nose was 2 foot long lol

Enoman, can't wait! I talked to a lot of guys getting off the river with just a keeper or two and not catching more than 6 - 10 fish. From everyone I talked to, we did ok. I'm hoping the water will warm a little this weekend and it should be on next week!

Albiechaser, I look foward to the pics!
Mike

Take a kid outdoors!

Heres Megan with or limit for saturday.Three of us fished way down towards the powerlines,caught 25 or so fish with 7 being keeper size,didnt think that sixth keeper was gonna get caught but finaly did.All caught on threadfin shad,had some bigger gizzard shad but they wouldnt hit them dead or cut.Man the crowd was out,my daughter counted 121 boats from where we were back to the landing,we quit fishing at 11:00.The officer at the landing said he hadnt checked a fish over the slot when he checked ours,but he said he checked two that was in the slot.One fisherman had 2 that was almost 23 inches.I saw and spoke to REDBOAT on our way in and asked if he had plenty of bait,we had a about a dozen and a half shad left.http://i43.tinypic.com/dotkjb.jpg

I took the wife and little boy yesterday 4/25/09, we got there around 12:00, yes alot of boats but it only to about 20 min to put in. So i was happy. we anchored up 1st using cut shad and large minnows caught only one rockfish, and 3 catfish. Pulled anchor and went up about 100 yards below the big rock started drifting.... thats when we started putting fish in the boat all were caught on the minnows, the shad I took (frozen) were way to soft and fell apart, so I need a bait tank If you have any recommendation post them please, want a Super Bait Tank but to $$$$ey right now. But the main bite was around 3:00 till we ran out of minnows we had great time. The sun was HOT. Most fish were small but we were able to catch some keepers. Enjoyed being out with the family and a great day was had..... Ps it only took 10 min wait to get out of the water. Going to try again Wed.

Mike, glad you guys had a good trip! and bearclaw, it was nice seeing you on the river!!

We or I should say I had a bit of a tough go of it Saturday.. I came down sick last Wednesday but toughed it out so I could fish on Saturday. We were able to get on the Water 8ish and had our limit (4) of "Solid" keepers by 12:30. We stayed on the water till 1 and I had enough..I'm gonna guestimate we had 20-25 fish with several right at or just over 18 inches.. We did not keep those.. The 4 we kept were 20-21 inches.. When we checked in at 1pm they said the biggest one they had seen was 29 inches and weighed about 14 pounds.. I have pictures but will upload them later...

bearclaw, Thank you again for the offer of your bait. Glad so see you made it back safe.