With this unusually warm winter, the striper fishing on the Lower Roanoke has been way different than last year. I will try to give my opinion on how the fishing compares to last year and what this means for this year and some of our upcoming charters.
LAST YEAR: With water temps holding steady in the low 40’s, massive schools of stripers were holding relatively tight in deeper water in the river channels and began to show a little movement by the second week of March when water temps began to climb into the mid-high 40’s. We had many triple digit days and a slow day would have been 25 or 30 fish. The fish were easy to find and easy to catch because they were in large schools and in predictable locations, as they didn’t do too much moving around.
THIS YEAR: Water temps have barely reached 46 degrees (only on the very coldest nights when overnight lows reached the 30’s and below). Yesterday, I saw 57 degree water in some of the creeks and 52 degree water during the middle part of the day in the main channels of the river. I even saw jumping mullets all the way up to Broad/Cow Creek just downriver from Jamesville. In Broad Creek, there were massive schools of mullet on the lower end. I’ve never seen mullet up the river that far…….may be indicitive of low flows from the upper river and some hard east winds over the past few weeks. I’m surprised no one had been in there strike netting, LOL. They would have been if they were speckled trout instead of mullet. Oh nevermind, no one ever strike nets in inland waters (which is illegal) because our law enforcement is so on top of this. All anecdotes aside, what does this mean for our fishing the rest of the season? We will still be looking for schools in the channels and along the ledges as we have been and jigging for them with our Z-Man soft plastics, but we will also have increased opportunities for topwater fishing in the early mornings, late afternoons, and on overcast days in the stump fields and along the banks outside the mouths of the river. Topwater striper fishing is my absolute favorite, and I hope we will have some spectacular fishing in the month of March. I am expecting the fish to arrive in Weldon a little early this year, as water temps will get probably get right for the spawn sooner this year, so think now about booking your Weldon trip. We may be up there a little earlier this year and dates will fill up. We are doing 6 hour morning and afternoon trips. May is still looking fairly wide open, but April is about half full already. Call me at 252-945-9715 or email richard@wordpress-976245-6168238.cloudwaysapps.com to line up your spring striper trip!
