I chased shad up there 2 years ago. It was all the 18" hickory shad you could handle. I'm told that 50 fish days are common, but we didn't do that well. Between my partner and I, though, I'm sure we boated at least 50.
Striper fishing is more challenging because there are more boats and more competition. Still, the area above Weldon isn't as heavily fished, simply becasue you can't take a boat upstream from the Weldon boat ramp (there's about a 24" waterfall just upstream). Capt. Gordon works the shad and striper runs on the Roanoke ever year. He likes to take a rubber raft from Gaston down to Weldon.
