There goes another spawn flushed down the toilet?

 They barely release enough water to float a boat for two months, then flush the whole spawn down the toilet?  

We'll see how this works out.......

My cobia season

 Had a great few days of fishing out of Hatteras with some good friends. 

Thanks Capt. Rick and Capt. Cameron for a couple of great days.  We successfully prevented the northern migration of a couple of cobia, released a couple more as well as a nice black drum and a bunch of other stuff.......and loaded the boat with a cooler full of tasty critters. 

Last day on the riva. Now booking 2023 It was a good time.

 

morning report

Based on current conditions, the mornings offer excellent top water action with afternoon big numbers of stacked up stripers waiting for the girls to release their eggs. 

 Funny looking striped bass a long ways from home:

Many thanks to the "other half" of the IWFA (International Women's Fishing Association), the guys who get to ride along and watch their wives out fish them.

Many thanks to these ladies who came from all over the country to fish on the riva.  Over 1000 striped bass caught and released alive in a day and a half.  

After starting the morning with my "fish of the season" which was an awesome topwater bite teased up and  switched over to a plastic eel on 3 pound braid. 

The smile is because this is a target species

yes, this also, as well as two species of catfish

Scattered fish can be caught starting at the boat ramp all the way to Plymouth, but there are several places in the river where there is a "Gathering"

Jennings with a good 'un

morning rant

Hopefully the upstream dams will release the appropriate amount of water for a successful spawn and the folks at NCWRC will get their head out of their ass and start stocking stripers if they do not have a successful spawn! 

The economic losses of this failed striped bass experiment by  NCWRC, USFWS, NCDMF, MFC and all the other acronyms is stagerring as is their complete incompetence. 

If they were doing their job and following their own plan, they would admit that they have failed and pursue a different strategy. 

The goal of Amendment 2 is to manage the estuarine striped bass fisheries to achieve self-sustaining populations that provide sustainable harvest based on science-based decision-making processes. If biological and/or environmental factors prevent a self-sustaining population, then alternate management strategies will be implemented that provide protection for and access to the resource.

The acroynms have failed and they will not admit it. 

Cape Fear River has been closed for two decades and finally now NCWRC admits that they will not recover to self-sustaining populations because of locks and dams and other environmental factors. 

The Neuse and Tar/Pamlico has a current moratorium and the Roanoke a 4 day season. 

How long before the acronyms admit that they are not God and allow the people paying their salaries to have access to our fish? 

The answer?  Like more progressive states.  Stocking, stocking, stocking.  

morning humor

 After last week's cold front, the majority of fish moved down river, getting further pushed by the hundreds of boats looking to catch just one fish.   After the keeper season, the waters warmed back into the mid to upper 60's and the striped bass returned to the boat ramp for their afternoon spawning drifts, now molested by only a dozen or so boats.  The long runs down river to find the mother load no longer needed. 

Also arriving for their spawning run is a flock of tiny skiffs with their useless platforms above the motors.  These boats apparently make their way from the south, appearing when the internet reports that anyone can catch a fish on the Roanoke.   The pair of anglers perched on these little dingys are primarily throwing fly rods with improper lines that rarely catch fish.  Occassionally one of the anglers will be surprised by a bite as he quickly retrieves the fly to make another ten false casts before hopefully launching the line 30 feet from the boat. 

As part of their spawning ritual these tiny bewildered boats mark their territory by scaping their fiberglass bottoms on the rocks barely visible from the surface.   Each year these boats spawn in different locations, but always prefer to find the faster water where they have no business going.   Occassionally one of these brave little crafts will make an aggressive charge up through the rocks in order to secure the best place to display their pathetic casting skills.  If theye don't launch their anglers into the water, these hard charges will certainly be effective at scarring the submerged boulders and logs not only with fiberglass but also with parts of lower units and props. 

Fortunatley for the more experienced guides with years on the river, these little skiffs don't stay in the way long.   The anglers are tired from hundreds of fruitless casts, fiberglass and props need to be repaired and the yellow stain left by the river must be removed by their pastel apparelled operators. 

As the peak of the spawn fades and numbers of fish in the river dwindle to barely 100 fish days for the  more experienced anglers, these little boats return to their southern flats and ponder the use of that platform above the motor. 

Report

Low water and a hundred boats in the river move the fish around, but the Down East Guides have been getting 'em .   Now that keeper season is over and the crowds have backed off the fishing has fired off to epic levels.