We’ve been catching shad in Weldon and stripers on the Pamlico. The shad bite has been epic despite the extremely low water. The river is definitely living up to its reputation as the hickory shad fishing MECCA. We’re also seeing some scattered American shad, probably due to them not traveling up the river in the rocks like they have been in previous years and hopefully also due to an increase in numbers of adult American shad resulting from successful, aggressive stocking over the last several years by the WRC.
I’ve never seen the river so low in Weldon. There are about 20 rocks that I’ve never seen before that could clip your lower unit between the boat ramp and the Big Rock. The stretch between the curve and Little River is particularly shallow and rock ridden. Proceed with caution! Another challenge is loading and unloading passengers from the boat. Although there is about 10 feet of floating dock actually in the water, it’s inaccessible because of the rip-rap around and underneath the end of it. Most of the other bank areas are either covered in concrete or rock. Despite the challenges, we’re up to the task, but let’s hope for some rain soon.
On the Pamlico, we’ve been doing well with stripers in the creeks. Pretty much all the 15-17 inch fish you want with scattered larger fish. The same is true up the Tar above Washington. The keeper ratio is a little better but the bite is a little more sporadic and dependent more on river conditions.
Enjoy the pictures. Kip and Elaine has a great shad trip last Friday, and Greg had a great time fishing the Pamlico on Saturday. Back at it tomorrow for the shad in Weldon.
