The NC Roanoke River Chronicles 2009

[Fins&Feathers]

Thanks for the report. I enjoyed the pictures.
That river is a cool place and full of wildlife.
Seen any turkeys yet i mean the real ones?

[gottaflylee]

The last few days have been full on fishing wise. My second oldest client, Tom Hall fished with on Friday and he put a waxing on them in the morning and did real well in the afternoon but at 1700 he was toste and it was take me to the hill. My guys fro Saturday were here and I made a phone call after Tom left and a hour later, Keith showed up with the kids, Daniel and Stewart. We headed to the fast water first and caught a few on poppers and a few on soft plastic twitch baits. After that we drifted down the main river using dead bait and caught them till dark...






The next morning, the sun was just comming over the trees


and things started with a bang as Daniel was the first hooked up, only this time, it was the surprise guest of MR. Bucket Mouth, a little over 5 pounds...



After that, Daniel was the hot rod for the rest of the day with biggest fish, most fish as well as having the most auhhhh, well I think the picture says it best...



The remainder of the morning was hot fast and furious as singles doubles and triples coming over the side of the boat were the norm on every drift. Taking pictures were almost imposable with keeping fish unhooked and baits in the water. Keith would stop fishing and just laugh at the boys and video the action. About 1100 we quite with over 120 fish morning as the bait was gone and we all were hungry...








The afternoon bite was almost as good as the morning bite. I had left my camera in my room as at lunch I had gone to download the load of pictures during lunch break. Keith has a bunch of great pictures from the afternoon and I hope that he or Daniel will post them up soon...we finished the day with over 200 fish...

As always guys, great spending time on the water with ya...

[gottaflylee]

Thanks for the report. I enjoyed the pictures.
That river is a cool place and full of wildlife.
Seen any turkeys yet i mean the real ones?

This morning the Turkeys were singing, guess they know there safe for another year... Yes the river here is very cool, working on a picture post of it soon...

[Supafly]

a tast of tonight, shot over 400 pictures of the spawn...

These are some of the coolest pics I have ever seen! Wow

[Wild Life Management]

Lee, those are definitely some of the coolest pics I've ever seen. I had no idea they did that. Awesome, keep it coming man.

[gottaflylee]

The day starts off with a big spawn the night before and the air chilled to 62 degrees and slated to drop into the 50s during the day. On top of that, there with a drizzle of rain in the air. I turn and grab a couple more layers to put on Burr, this stunk after days in the 80s and.
A quick fly by to Hardees for coffee and a biscuit and on to the ramp to meet the guys at 0600. Pull into the landing and only a handful of cars, well it is only 6 I though. I get a couple of popper rods ready when Peter pulls up and Tracy behind him. Tracy hops out with shorts on and I ask if he had some pants to put on, "nope" he states and I lean into the truck and grab another pair of rain pants for him...
We launch the boat and make the long grueling ride of 150 yards to the fast water to see if we can get some top water going but it was not to be. Switched over to some Deceivers and it was game on for Peter as he put 5 rats in the boat, not what I was looking for. We regroup and head down the river with some sinking lines and get set up. Soon Tracy is on and is catching up...then Peter is on his game again...





It turns out to be a slow scattered bite but a very doable day. The shock boat shows up and neither of the guys had seen this before so we stopped and took the time to watch the show as they shocked up hundreds of 2 to 8 pound fish. After that , we went to the tagging boat and watched them remove a scale mark, record data and tag fish. They had tagged 1 over 38 pounds and had a couple they had killed for research in the 20s.







We moved back up past where they had shocked and I marked them good on the opposite side of the river and made a drift with one of the other guys staying hooked up. I kept looking for our first double, but it would just not happen. Talked to Brian DeHeart and we made plans for us all to eat at "Ralf's" barbecue for lunch. We headed back up for another drift and the boys got their first double of the day...ah, life is good and my day was made.





After lunch, we set the time to meet back on the river at 1500 so the guys could geat some rest and I could go to my room and get some work done and get some more fly's for the afternoon.
Leaving the landing, we headed to where we left off and I noticed that I was marking a few fish as we worked down. Started the with only a scattered bite and continued all the way down through the "smoke stack" stretch with disappointing results I thought but the guys were catching enough to keep them happy I think.
We take the leisurely cruise back up the river and head to where I had marked some fish. When we got there, the fish were stacking up and looking good. First cast, Tracy hooks up and soon Peter, then both at the same time, it was on... Many doubles and lots of singles and the numbers were stacking up. By the end of the day, the guys had their 100 fish day and cramps in their hands and arms...



bird picture for the day...



Here is one for holdwhatugot...



and last but not least, last pair for the day...2 in the basket...