UNBELIEVABLE year on the Roanoke River this year!!!
First off I need to say that if someone was telling me what I'm getting ready to report I wouldn't believe them either. LOL All I can say is that we had a year on the Roanoke that I don't think we'll ever beat unless we get into some big fish one year. This trip started off years ago with us staying in Raleigh with my in-laws and driving up each day for a few days to fish with bass minnows, and with gas prices it has evolved into a few days with me and Zach fishing by ourselves and then us taking his grandfather up for a few days of fishing. We always invite folks at our church to join us, and this year we had a few take us up on it.
We tried to get us some bait before heading up on 4-22-14, but we had a couple deaths in our church and didn't get a chance to get any bait; so, on Monday night Zach and I got about 10 dozen bass minnows and headed up to Lake Gaston where we caught bait around midnight. Headed up to Weldon and slept in the truck for a few hours before meeting my uncle at the McDonalds and hit the river. Got to the boat ramp to fewer than expected trucks and hit the water. We started fishing right in behind the big rock, which wasn't visible due to the high water, and drifted to the dock down near Halifax. Above the power lines we hit a school of fish for a mile that were so thick you couldn't get the bait to the bottom and caught fish after fish solid for an hour and a half. It was unreal. Several times we had 3-5 or 6 fishing coming in at one time and got to the point we could only fish one rod apiece. They were hitting live or dead shad and minnows as quick as you could get it to them, even cut bait was working. When we got to the dock we had 183 on the clicker. We had our limit so we took off to the hotel to clean fish and meet up with David who was going to fish with us on Wednesday. After supper with David and my uncle while it was raining we headed back to the river to let David experience the Roanoke River for the first time. He caught his first Roanoke River striper and got to reel in several others, but no more keepers for the day. We ended our best day on the Roanoke River with 193 total. We went through a couple hundred shad and most all of the bass minnows we had. We sat on the river by ourselves watching the sun go down and just basking in God's gift of the day to us. Sitting there we could hear owls hooting, turkeys gobbling, and deer snorting up in the woods. God is so good! After dark we headed back up to the lake to catch bait for the next day.
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Day 2 we took David back to the river and fished till about 3 or 4pm. The fish were still biting and we hit 126 for the day. Our main focus was keeping David on fish, but Zach and I caught plenty as well. This was David's 1st trip up there and I think he really enjoyed himself. We got our limit for the day, and after cleaning fish, supper, and getting David on his way home we headed back to get bait.
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Day 3 was mine and Zach's day to fish by ourselves. My brother, nephew, and a friend of theirs came up on Scotty's boat and they fished for the day too. Zach and I caught 130 for the day, got our limit and so did my brothers boat. After cleaning fish and supper we headed back for more bait.
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Day 4 (Friday) was an extra day we don't usually do, but we were fishing an Oxford Children's Home Tournament on Saturday where we volunteer to take one of the kids and a chaperone out on the boat for a day of fishing, so we stayed up an extra day and our new pastor brought his 2 boys up to fish with us. Their fishing has been limited to "Zebco 33's, ponds, and creeks" (his words LOL) so Zach and I worked as guides for the day. I didn't fish at all (although I did reel in 1 fish when nobody else could get it), and Zach only half fished. On their first trip of this sort at all they put 89 in the boat for the day, and we got our limit for the day.
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No pictures of Saturday, as requested by the children's home, but we got to spend the day with one of the guys and share God's love and a day of memories on the water. I think the boy we had on boat had his name on the "leader board" at the end of the day for biggest fish and most fish I believe.
Sunday night after church and supper with my wife and girls Zach and I headed to Raleigh to pick up his grandpa and head up to Gaston to get some bait for Monday. After another nights sleep in the truck we hit the river bright and early for our annual trip. My buddy Jesse's son turned 16 on Monday, so them and Jesse's dad brought up his boat and joined us for the 3 days as well. As we were leaving Monday afternoon the shock boat was working the river so we got to watch them for a while too. My boat's numbers for the 3 days were 176, 143, and 103 (little over a half day on the third day) and both boats caught a limit of keepers each day.
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After fishing up there for 7 out of 9 days and catching bait every day, I have a new found respect for the guides that work up there for a couple months catching their bait every night and taking sometimes 2 different groups a day fishing. I'm sure they make good money doing it (as I figure it up), but they certainly work for it too. We ended the 7 days with 960 stripers on the clicker so the actual number would have been between that and 1,000 fish . . . UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! Catching bait every night was a chore, but well worth the over $1,000 dollars we saved in not having to buy shad every day. The last 3 days the weather forecast was for some heavy rain and dangerous weather, but fortunately this time, the weatherman was wrong. When we got off the river a little after lunch on the last day of the season there were maybe 15 trucks in the lot. It was like having our own little private river full of fish to ourselves. We didn't catch any fish that were too big to keep, but the numbers that we caught were amazing. Can't wait to see what next year holds.
Mike
Take a kid outdoors!
