[cbruce41]

It’s that time again, you know when the boat’s in the shop and you’re Jonesing for a fishing fix. So it’s off to the bridge for the evening!

Air temps were mid 40’s, water temp no way to tell but in the Pamlico it should be mid-50’s. Trolling my favorite bridge working against the rocks my first hook up was a sturdy 24” striper. No net so I had to walk it over to the rocks to land it. Catch and release then rinse and repeat with a much smaller 18 inches Both hit on a Zoom smoking shad on a 1/8 oz chartreuse head. Things went quiet for an hour or so but then all heck broke loose. Stripers busting topwater but not going for my topwater so I go to Mirro Lure (green broken glass). Still nothing so then, where was my Yozuri? Threw it on, one cast and a miss by a hungry, hard charging striper. Second cast netted a nice 22” that was pretty quickly followed by three more and uncounted strikes. Final tally, six landed, two spitting the hook and uncounted misses. All-in-all, not a bad nights play! Sooooooo…stripers are in!!

 

[Leon Joyce]

Thanks for the report Bruce.
Ocean breeders don't come this far south do they?

 

[cbruce41]

Leon, not quite sure what you mean by ocean breeders. Stripers spawn in the fresh waters of rivers up and down the east coast then spend a couple of years in the bays before they join the annual migration and spawning runs. The only active spawning river in the state of NC is the Roanoke where the spawn occurs in the headwaters around Weldon in April/May. There is where you’ll find the big girls and boys (40+ inchers). The state is trying desperately to reintroduce spawning and breeding stock in the other major rivers in the state. Anything under about 30” is part of those stockings.
For the record I picked up another 6 last night all between 18-22”. No, you can’t keep them but successfully landing a 22-25” striper on a light action trout rig is still a blast!

 

[Leon Joyce]

Don't forget Bruce that my home waters before moving here was the Chesapeake, the largest nursery/estuary for stripers in the world. From now to the end of the spawn we catch fish from 36-50" C/R, on light tackle (2500 spinning reels) after which most resort to trolling. You know when an ocean fish comes over the rails by the darker coloring, fat bellies and a deck full of sea lice.
I had heard the stripers here are all stocked. In the past I believe stripers spawned as far south as SC. Back when the Santee Cooper system was dammed, spawning fish were trapped and flourished. Thats when we found out they could survive in fresh water. You can now find landlocked stripers in lakes all over the country but Santee Cooper is the only system where a successful spawn occurs.

 

[cbruce41]

Yeah, we do still have a spawn in the Roanoke but that’s it for now. You can find those 36-50” adults then. You just can’t keep more than a single fish/day! Stripers and flounder…one and done!

 

[bmac]

Roanoke River recruitment has been abysmal the last 10 years. In many cases that was due to poor water flows during the spawning run, but even when water levels have been ideal they have not had successful spawns. NC WRC is seriously considering a total moratorium on keeping any stripers in the parts of the Roanoke River under their jurisdiction in coming years and perhaps even suspending C&R fishing. Lots of factors involved but the biggest problem here and in the CSMA (Neuse, Tar, Pamlico) is there are not enough large breeding females in the population. There's one primary reason for that mortality according to the NC WRC, and that is gillnets. NC DMF however rejects that claim.
Leon-- To elaborate on your post, from what I've read, NC fisheries biologists have determined that almost all of the stripers in the CSMA are of hatchery origin. Not true in the Roanoke, but I'm not sure how much hatchery fish contribute to that stock biomass, and I don't know about the Cape Fear River stock either, but I believe that too is mostly hatchery fish.