Anglers can expect 18- to 19-inch stripers to be plentiful in the Roanoke River this rockfish season, the coastal fisheries supervisor for the state Wildlife Resources Commission told the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce today.
Next week the commission begins posting its coastal rivers fisheries report on its website. While not a report on the bait and gear to use to land a rockfish, the report will give conditions that still could aid anglers, Chad Thomas said. “It's a weekly sampling of what the biologist are seeing.”
Currently flows are coming up high, Thomas told a group at chamber headquarters. “It's going to come back to 10,000 cubic feet for second this weekend. It should be better for the shad tournament this weekend.”
(A copy of the Rockfish Capital of the World resolution is included as a PDF at the end of this story)
The peak of the shad run should come within the next seven to 10 days.
Rockfish, which are being caught in Jamesville, are still waiting for the Weldon spawning waters to hit the 64-degree mark, a phenomena he said that has occurred yearly because of the rapidly moving waters, which produce a comfortable oxygen content. “They're catching striped bass in the lower river. The males are the first to move to the spawning grounds,” he said.
Because of this migration from saltwater to freshwater, Weldon has been designated by a General Assembly resolution as the Rockfish Capital of the World. “It's a very popular place,” Thomas said. “It's critical to the local economy. That's why we make sure they are protected on the spawning grounds.”
Anglers at Weldon Wednesday.
Beyond the spawning grounds, he said, rockfish that biologists tag in Weldon during the season have been found to travel up to coasts of New York and Maine in June. “They travel together to spawn and travel together throughout the year.”
Catching the prized striper is dependent on the water temperature, Thomas explained. The best chance is to put in at Weldon and go the mouth of Little River and then go about a quarter mile to Big Rock. “They move throughout the day.”
