The striper fishing on the lower Roanoke continues. It’s not the 100 fish days of the past. We are really starting see a dip in the numbers, but the fishing remains pretty darn good by most peoples’ standards. We were just extremely spoiled years ago and expectation were set too high. We are still catching 15-50 fish per trip, with the possibility of always getting more if we find a big hungry school. The river is starting to fall and is projected to fall from 20,000 cfs at the end of last week to 6000 cfs by this coming Tuesday, Feb. 13th. I bet that will change with the amount of rain that came through the upper basin last night and today.
I was able to venture out on the Tar to check on the arrival of our 2024 shad season. Although way too early to be peak shad season, we did catch a few. I’ve heard reports of scattered catches of single digits all the way up to 15 or 20 in the Neuse, Tar, and Roanoke Rivers already. It won’t be much longer before they are thick. I bet we’ll be doing some late February shad fishing this year whereas traditionally we haven’t started until the first week of March. I’m really looking forward to that. It’s one of my favorite times of the year.
Remaining open dates for shad: Feb. 27th, Mar. 12th, 20th, Apr. 2nd, 3rd
I still have plenty of days open for the summer smallmouth floats. I’ve booked about 1/3 of my days so far, but have plenty left to fill. They will go, so plan your trip early and secure your dates if that’s something you’d like to explore. I recommend 2 days. I promise it will be an experience you won’t forget.
We will be doing a fishing seminar at the Orvis Store in Raleigh this coming Saturday, Feb. 17th from 1:30 to 3:30. If you are in the area and want to come hear about our spring shad and striper fishing as well as our summer smallmouth floats, come on by. The hospitality from the guys at the store is second to none. They’ll have beer and snacks for everyone.
