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RALEIGH, N.C. (April 22) – With the restoration of the Roanoke River striped bass population, North Carolina now boasts one of the best striped bass fisheries on the East Coast. To maintain the integrity of this excellent fishery, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission establishes an annual striped bass season, which runs from March 1 through April 15 for the lower Roanoke River and March 15 through April 30 for the upper part of the river. The Commission sets this striped bass season and enforces regulations, such as size and creel limits, to ensure that the stock remains stable. A once heavily overfished resource, striped bass now are found in abundance in the Roanoke River, particularly in the spring, when they begin their spawning run up the river. Striped bass, an anadromous species, spend their adult lives in salt water but migrate into fresh water each spring to spawn. While striped bass typically begin their spawning run in mid-to-late March, this year as well as in 2003, good numbers didn’t appear in the lower part of the Roanoke until early-April. With only two to three good weeks of fishing before the season closed on the lower part of the river this spring, anglers did not harvest as many striped bass as they had in past years — a fact that has some people upset, asking that the striped bass season be extended. “This spring, cold weather and low river flows were not conducive to a strong striped bass harvest,” said Pete Kornegay, anadromous fisheries coordinator with the Commission. “Last spring, cold weather and high-water flows resulted in low harvests as well. However, in 2002, with the warmer weather in March and more suitable water flows, anglers in the lower river were catching stripers like gangbusters. It’s the same situation with our waterfowl seasons — some years are better than others, and it’s all driven by weather.” Extending the season, however, probably is not a good idea, Kornegay said. Maintaining season lengths, even in the wake of a disappointing season, is important because the number of striped bass harvested in the Albemarle Sound and Roanoke River is managed under a “total allowable catch” plan, which designates the total pounds of striped bass that can be harvested each year without jeopardizing the population. The plan must be approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. “Some years the harvest exceeds the total allowable catch. Other years, the harvest falls below the total allowable catch, as was the case last year,” Kornegay said. “Extending the season during low-catch years to allow anglers to catch more fish, however, will result in more striped bass being harvested than the plan allows. If this happens several years in a row, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission could require us to significantly reduce the allowable catch down the road.” Before implementing the set-season regulations, the Commission opened and closed the striped bass season by proclamation based upon weekly estimates of how many pounds of fish had been harvested. This system caused much confusion and frustration among anglers because they never knew when the season would close until the signs were posted at the boat ramp, Kornegay said. “This is the third springtime striped bass season on the Roanoke using set-season regulations. Many fishermen have told us that they really like the set seasons because they know exactly when the season will be open and exactly when it will be closed,” Kornegay said. “Our set season and 7-day-per-week harvest rules allow fishermen to plan their fishing trips ahead of time. Retirees, especially, like the set season because they can fish for stripers during the week to avoid the weekend crowds.” While striped bass may seem plentiful these days, this wasn’t always the case. Kornegay remembers the near collapse of the Albemarle/Roanoke striper population in the mid-1980s. By the early 1990s, striped bass harvest was cut by 80 percent because their numbers dropped so drastically — to a low of only 195,000 fish. Excessive fishing pressure had reduced the striped bass stock to a fraction of what it used to be.
Shorter seasons and strict management of annual allowable catches mandated by the Commission and the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, allowed the stock to recover to its present levels. Wildlife Commission biologists believe that the significant increase in total allowable catch resulting from the population recovery combined with a set season and 7-day-per-week harvest rules strikes the best balance between reasonable harvest limits and conservation of the population. “We fully understand that taking home fish is very important to many anglers, and with a healthy striped bass population like we have, we are glad to be able to have a liberal harvest season,” Kornegay said. “But we also have a responsibility to the angling public to make our seasons and other rules as clear and predictable as possible.” Visit the Commission’s
Web site at www.ncwildlife.org, for a series of questions and answers
on striped bass fishing, including
optimal fishing spots and tips to catching striped bass. From late
February to early May, weekly fishing reports from the Roanoke River
are posted online every Friday afternoon. |