WELDON — Ah, spring. Couples holding hands in the park, songbirds chirping in newly greened trees, and striped bass pounding the ever-livin’ tar out of topwater lures on the Roanoke River near Weldon.

An assortment of topwater lures will work to catch striped bass now. Note these lures have been modified to meet the single barbless hook regulation.

Striped bass have begun spawning, and, along with their annual aquatic courtship rituals, comes the greatly anticipated topwater action that gets anglers’ hearts racing.

“The topwater action is on now,” said Bobby Colston, owner of Colston’s Tackle Box south of Gaston. “It’s very strong early in the morning and late in the afternoon. You can catch stripers one right behind another.”

Chad Thomas, the Wildlife Commission’s fisheries research coordinator for the coastal region, said that striped bass had begun spawning in good numbers – a cue for many anglers to pull out their topwater lures.

“Our most recent striped bass sampling on the upper Roanoke was conducted on Monday, May 10,” Thomas said. “We received reports of heavy spawning activity over the weekend and again on Tuesday, May 11.”

Thomas said that Monday’s striped bass sampling produced more than 500 fish, the majority of which were male stripers ranging in size from 12 to 33 inches. “Female striped bass, for the most part, were segregated from the males, bunching up in schools and waiting to spawn,” Thomas said. “About 100 of the 500 fish we sampled were female stripers, and they ranged in size from 16 to 39 inches.”

Fisheries Biologist Kevin Dockendorf shows off one of the larger striped bass collected and then safely returned to the Roanoke during this week's electrofishing sampling.

Colston said that most fly rodders were reporting catching the smaller, male striped bass that Thomas saw in his weekly fish-sampling work. One local guide, however, reportedly caught an 18-pounder on a fly rod this week. “But for the most part, the fish they’re all catching now are mostly bucks – about 2- to 5-pounds on average,” Colston said.

A fishing buddy of Colston’s reported catching 30 striped bass on a fly rod this week. “He just anchored at the sand bar below the Weldon boat ramp and caught them all on a topwater popper,” Colston said. “He wasn’t catching lots of big fish, but it was a lot of fun.”

For anglers casting conventional topwater lures, Colston suggested using Red Fins, Pop-Rs with added skirts, Zara Spooks, Striper Swipers and Pencil Poppers. “Most anything that makes a ruckus on the surface will catch fish right now,” he said. “Color doesn’t seem to make a difference. It just has to make a lot of noise, and you have to keep it coming in steady.”

As the sun rises and the day warms, anglers can continue reeling in striped bass by switching to large minnows or throwing bucktails and Sassy Shads, Colston said. Live herring would be effective, but Colston said anglers were having difficulty catching them this week.

“It’s slim pickings fishing Sabiki rigs for herring right now,” Colston said. “The Sabiki season is about over. One guy came in and said he fished a couple of hours and caught about 12. Another guy came in and said he fished for two hours and only caught four.”

Bait fishermen are better off fishing with cut bait or large minnows, Colston said. For anglers who enjoy fishing at night, Colston said that nocturnal anglers were reporting catching striped bass this week on bucktails, Sassy Shads and Super Flukes.

Where To Fish
Colston said that most striped bass anglers were finding fish in the stretch of the Roanoke from the boat landing at Weldon down to about ¼ mile below the “big rock.” This year, few anglers reported catching striped bass farther up river near the highway 48 bridge, Colston said.

Staff from the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Wildlife Commission worked together this week to measure, weigh, tag and collect scales from striped bass, including this 38-inch female.

“When you have high water like last year, they’ll come all the up to the 48 bridge and on up to the Roanoke Rapids dam,” he said. “But on a year like this, Weldon might be the best place to put in.”

If anglers are thinking the striped bass have begun spawning earlier this year than last year, they’re right, according to Thomas.

“We were reading water temperatures of 73 degrees on Monday, which is at the top end of the striped bass spawning range,” Thomas said. “Last spring, we were still collecting striped bass on June 10 and the water temperatures were just approaching 70 degrees at that time. So striped bass spawning is occurring this year almost a full month earlier than it did in 2003.”

Thomas said that anglers didn’t have much more time to get in on the striper action around Weldon this year.

“We noticed a lot of spawned-out fish this past week while we were electrofishing,” Thomas said. “All indications point to a mass exodus from the Weldon area in a week or so as the striped bass begin their trek back to Albemarle Sound and eventually the ocean.”

Colston agreed. “With the spawning activity already started, the fishing will be all right this weekend, but next weekend will be ‘iffy’ because they’re going to be starting to head back down river.”

Live And Let Live
Thomas noted that the rapid rise in the Roanoke River’s water temperatures means that anglers must use proper catch-and-release techniques to reduce hooking mortality of striped bass. Thomas offered the following suggestions to help ensure striped bass that are caught and released may live to spawn another day and fight another day:

• Use strong tackle to land fish quickly and minimize stress.
• Use an artificial lure with a single barbless hook instead of fishing live or natural bait to reduce deep hooking.
• If using live or natural bait, use barbless circle hooks because striped bass caught with small circle hooks are generally hooked in the jaw and thus have a greater chance of survival after being released than a deep-hooked striper.
• Use only one fishing rod per person and do not use rod holders. This helps decrease the chances of deep-hooking a striper.
• Keep stripers in the water while unhooking them, if possible.
• Do not use landing nets unless absolutely necessary. Landing nets that must be used should be made of knotless nylon or rubber.
• For stripers that must be boated to be unhooked, calm the fish by covering its eyes with a wet rag. Do not allow the fish to thrash about.
• Carefully, but quickly, remove the hook using a dehooker, needlenose pliers or forceps.
• If the fish is hooked deep in the throat or gut, cut the line and release the fish. Research shows that many striped bass are able to survive carrying a hook and many hooks are expelled eventually.
• A fish that does not immediately swim away sometimes can be resuscitated by moving it back and forth to force water over its gills.

More information

Striped Bass Q&A for 2004

Guide to striped bass fishing on the Roanoke River

Check current river conditions at Roanoke Rapids

Check current river conditions at Williamston

Low Catches of Striped Bass on Roanoke River Concern Some Anglers (from 4/22)