The winter striper fishing remains steady. We are having to hunt the fish, but hunting is paying off with consistent catches of 20-50 fish. It seems like the 100 fish days that were so common a decade ago are less common, but the fishing still remains “damn good” by normal standards. I think we just got a little spoiled years ago and expectations were set too high. Maybe with the supplemental stocking of 2.2 million fingerlings in 2023, again this year in 2024, and next year in 2025, the 100 fish days will once again be more common. The river has been flowing at 25,000 cfs for over a week, so we’ve been enjoying the high water fishing. Dominion has decreased the flows to 10,000 cfs, so the river will be dropping over the course of this week. We’ll see if they ramp it back up after all this rain has passed. I checked the gauges on the Staunton (Upper Roanoke) and Dan Rivers, and they were both pointing straight up, so I assume Kerr Lake will be getting some more water.
I still have a few scattered open days: Feb. 8-9, 14, 27 for stripers. I’m gonna start dedicating myself to shad fishing this year a little earlier (right at the beginning of March), so I have Mar. 4-6, 12-13, 20, Apr. 2-3 open for shad. If none of those openings work for you, I can always get you out with Capt. Hurley.
Here are some pictures to enjoy from some of our trips this past week:
