Roanoke Bassin

[Onslow]

For years, I've been wanting to press a bit further down this river.  Long stretches of water can be found between bridges making it a very frustrating river to fish.  Low flow rivers fish slower, and 3-4 mile beats can fill up most of the day, but this stretch has 10 miles, and the first bridge below my starting point is way to steep to take out. Access span is 14 miles.

I had a plan to work round that. It involved depositing the canoe and gear at the put in, driving to a tributary bridged to park the van.  Walked three miles back to the put in, and I was off.



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After about an hour, I encountered water filled with very jagged ledge rock.  The gradient picks up here (20 fpm).  I started working shallower intermediate pools with gentle push water. PB measuring 13"

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The next fish looked completely black in the water.

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The next .7 of a mile was golden.

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15 citation Roanokes were caught, 6-7 were 13 inches.

After the first mile, the geology changed from ledge rock to more round rock. No more Roanokes. The bass were not biting either.

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Perched in the tree with scant foliage is a bald eagle. He circled around and came rather close.  A couple peeping sounds were made as if flew away.You cannot view this attachment.

Mile 2 water was poor quality, mile 3 was better, but still no bass.  Managed a crappie.

Made a turn in the trib, and paddled another 1.5.  It looked like a good chain pickeral stream, but no love. I did manage a couple redbreast and a yellow bullhead.

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Lacking pics due to upload issues.

[itieuglyflies]

Awesome Ken..."walked three miles back to the put in and I was off". One tough dude for sure and incredible fish too.

[Onslow]

Some may believe these are the same as Rock Bass, but I will assert that while their appearance is similar, they are not the same.  Roanoke bass are far more aggressive, they grow larger than Rock bass.  Definitely more fun to catch. A 13 inch Roanoke will put a good bend in 6wt streamer rod.

VA shat up their fishery by introducing Rock bass into Roanoke bass habitat.

The only place in VA that might still have a solid fishery is the Bannister River near Mt. Airy VA. Nottoway reportedly isn't bad. I suspect there may be a handful in Sandy River (Danville area), Seneca Creek (Long Island Va), and maybe the Falling River.

I believe they would also do well in the Mayo at the ledges (bypass water) near Mayodan, or the Smith River bypass water in Eden. They seem to favor spawning in near vertical ledge rock.

Roanoke bass were stocked officially in two watersheds outside their native range.  There are some in the Deep river between Coleridge and High Falls, Uwharrie, Little River (Pee Dee watershed).

Drifting a Kraft Clawdad is the ticket.  Only caught one on a baitfish pattern #2/0 Murdich minnow, and it was the only one that wasn't citation size.