Jake Jordan's Fishing Adventures

April 6th, 2009

North Carolina Shad Fishing Report
April 2, 3, 4, 2009

Greetings from North Carolina:

This is my second year fly fishing on the Roanoke River in Weldon NC during the annual Hickory Shad migration. This weekend is the annual outing of the Cape Lookout Fly Fishers club and this year close to twenty club members were spotted catching these poor man's Tarpon.

Hickory Shad with #6 shad fly

April 2, 2009

I met my friend Chuck Laughridge at the launch ramp in Weldon at 1:30 PM in cloudy, windy weather. He and Jill had been fishing most of the morning with limited success, the cloudy skies and strong wind had the shad turned off (not eating well) and our fishing was slow. Jan and I fished hard for a few hours while Chuck drove the boat to lots of usually good spots, we each caught a couple of fish and then quit around 5:30 PM.

Jan with first Shad of the afternoon

Chuck had invited me to fish with him here on the Roanoke for a couple of days so we met for dinner and planned our fishing for the next day. Chuck explained that these Hickory Shad eat good in sunny weather which we never saw this afternoon, and the report was for cloudy and windy weather with rain in the morning. Jerry Coats and I would be Chuck's anglers today and we launched about 9:00 AM when the sun began to peek through the clouds while the wind increased to over 25 knots. In the morning Jerry, Chuck and I caught at least 30 shad while Jerry also caught a nice Rock Fish on fly and then we took a lunch break.

Chuck releasing Jerry's Rockfish

After lunch Clark Hutchinson showed up towing his flats skiff, so we split up with Chuck and Jerry fishing in Chuck's boat while Clark and I fished in Clark's skiff. Of course Chuck and Jerry had incredible fly fishing releasing close to a hundred Shad in the afternoon. Mean while down the river in a spot where Chuck had steered us too Clark and I caught plenty of Shad 30+ each. The weather in the afternoon was sunny with very strong wind (close to 40 knots) but the fish ate well.

Clark's first Roanoke Shad

Albert and Bill fishing just down river from Clark and I.

About a dozen CLFF members met at Ralph's Barbeque at 7:00 PM to discuss the days fishing and tomorrows sunny and beautiful weather forecast. The food was good and the company even better by 9:00 I was in bed asleep after a hard day on the river.

Today I met Chuck at 7:30 for a "cheese biscuit" and cup of coffee and then we launched at the crowded launch ramp. We rode down the river where we saw at least 7 boats of anglers from our club all catching shad. After saying good morning to all my buddy Chuck proceeded to take me to a spot where the shad were thick. While Chuck anchored the boat I caught a shad on each of my first 3 casts, and then after Chuck caught shad on his first two casts, we caught a couple of double headers.

Baby Tarpon?

Chuck with other half of Double!

We giggled and laughed like little kids as we racked up incredible catch ratio numbers. I was fishing with a 5 weight while Chuck used a 4 weight, 250 grain streamer express was the correct fly line, Pink or yellow # 6 flies worked well. After 3 hours of fly fishing and more than 150 Hickory Shad released in the warm sunny weather, we headed to the ramp and headed home by noon.Wow what a great couple of days of fly fishing, I enjoyed the comradery of fishing with all of the CLFF members and look forward to next year, thanks Chuck.

Another Double for Chuck and I

I am working on getting ready to head to the Keys for Tarpon season next Monday, I will be in Marathon on the 15th and begin Tarpon fishing on the 16th of April. I still have a few prime dates available for both night and day time Tarpon fly fishing, contact me soon if you have any interest in catching the Tarpon of your dreams. More reports to follow!

Beginning April 17 2009

Regards:
Jake