Weldon 4/13

[shemstreet]

Since the weatherman was predicting high winds yesterday afternoon and the ramps at Flemingtown were reported to be a bit on the underwater side, I decided to get a little shore fishing in instead of trolling around on Kerr.

I made the hour drive up to Weldon from my place (401-561-48-158).

First off, if you can find the picture I posted during shad season, add 10-20' of water to it. The rocks to the left of the ramp only have three little tips poking out of the water, the rocks to the right are totally submerged. The game warden there said the Corps started dumping water to support the spawn Weds and that catches had dropped off since then.

I might have had one bite, and that is questionable, in the four hours or so I spent there. Very few people compared to the height of the shad run, but that is often the nice thing about fishing Sunday mornings. The boat traffic picked up as the day went on.

Did not see any fish caught from shore. Saw three small ones caught near the far bank by boaters. On the other hand, received several reports of people catching close to 100 stripers from boats down stream. Supposedly down stream under the power line area. I do not think too many of these fish were keepers, so the large females have still not made the run up yet, but plenty of small males. These boats were using live bait for the most part, lots of round shad livewells in the boats leaving the ramp.

Other than that, turned out to be a nice day on the river bank. Was comfortable in shorts and t-shirt once the sun had been up a while. The river is high, but the current did not seem too bad. Saw a kayaker run up to the rocks with no problem, and boats were able to hold position easily, although some of the trailer reloading seemed to be affected by the current.

Heard another report that they were killing them at the 258 bridge area, so maybe they will be in this week or next weekend.

Game wardens started hanging out at the top of the ramp as the boat traffic increased. Polite and a good source of information, but have your license ready. Surprised the one that checked me did not make sure my barbs were mashed down, but have heard others have done so in the past week. Of course, they could see I was not having any luck from their position.

I'd say if you went during the week or got there by 8:00 am Sunday you would have plenty of room to park a trailer or find a spot to shore fish. I got there about 8:45 and still had parking spots. No pier there if you have not been there this year. Looks like the old one washed out and people were loading passengers from shore in the little cove it used to be in.