I went up to the Roanoke River this past sunday (4/30) to get myself situated and run a few trips before coming back down to the coast to be with family for a couple of days.
5/1 – Today I took out Bill and Rich – decicated fly anglers – to find the bite. Well, it was a chilly morning and they raised the water another 2-3 feet since the 28th. Combined, those conditions really shut down the bite for most of the day. The good news is that the biologists who were shocking fish reported a ton more fish in the river – lots of bucks. So things should really pick up as it warms up…
Well, the topwater bite is showing promise – we had several follows/strikes in the early hours. We still worked hard and caught a handful of fish on the fly. The trick was to get your fly line out as far as possible (60+ feet) and dredge it for as long as possible threw the faces of as many stripes as possible… I made some occasional casts with the spinning rod and caught several fish on jigs. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the truck – so i ddon’t have any photos to share… 👿
After I dropped my folks off, I grabbed my camera and headed out with fellow guide and friend Dean Richards to see what we could do for the last hour of daylight. Well, the bite really got pretty hot in the later part of the day. Between the two of us, we averaged a fish every 7 minutes on the fly before I switched to topwaters – i had some great strikes (most of them threw my zara spook completely out of the water) before we called it a day.
I still have some great day open – including Saturday AM, and all-day monday. Give me a call on your cell if you’re interested – 919 423 6310
