Roanoke Rockfish

My buddy, Traner Knott, is getting married this month.  A few weeks back, we made plans to do a guys weekend on the Roanoke River chasing rockfish.  We decided to go for a few days during the first week of May, so that we could avoid the keeper season crowd.  Traner invited his brother George, and friend Ernie to come along with us. 

I love striper season on the Roanoke...but the stretch of river near Weldon can be like a Walmart Parking lot during the April keeper season.  The first few weeks of May see just as many stripers, but with a lot less people on the river.  The spawn is also in full swing in May, and it's an awesome sight to see hundreds of stripers fighting at the surface for a chance to spawn with a big female. 

Traner and I arrived in Weldon and met up with Ernie at the local campground.  There was a storm on the radar, so the three of us went to lunch, where we waited for the storm to arrive.  It never came so we hit the river and started fishing.  It was hot on the river, and felt more like a July day than early May.  We picked up a few stripers here and there as the afternoon passed.  With the sun still high in the sky, most of the fish were caught deep, either on jigged grubs or clouser flies on sinking lines. 

As the sun set, the fish started coming to the surface to spawn.  When a big female striper is ready to spawn, she comes to the surface to release her eggs.  Dozens of smaller males follow her up and literally fight for the chance to be the closest to her, so they can fertilize her eggs when she releases them.  These "striper fights" can be seen and heard from a hundred yards away, and there will sometimes be several of these happening all at once.  At this point we switched to top water and started picking up fish from the surface.  Right before dark, the air temp dropped and the wind picked up as a storm chased us off the river.

The next morning we met up with Traner's brother George, at the ramp before day break.  The top water bite was excellent for the first hour of the day.  A couple times, I could count as many as 5 or 6 stripers darting under my fly before one would inhale it.  Once the sun got higher in the sky, the bite slowed and we went back to dredging the bottom of the river for fish.  We called it a day around noon, and headed over to Ralph's BBQ,  where we ate until we went into a partial coma.  I had a great weekend on the river with these guys and look forward to doing it again sometime soon.