How and Where to Catch Roanoke Bass - Ambloplites cavifrons The forgotten Bass #roanokebass

How and Where to Catch Roanoke Bass -   Ambloplites cavifrons

What is a Roanoke Bass? Well a Roanoke Bass is a cousin to the Rock bass, Shadow bass, and the Ozark Bass. To all but a very few they look the same. Except 2 things, 1 the Roanoke bass gets bigger and 2, whereas the others are known for being lazy fighters, the Roanoke is a brawler on the line.

Where are they Found??. They were first recognized from the Roanoke river in Virginia(hence their name) and then found out to be in the Tar and Neuse drainage's in North Carolina. Today you will not usually find these fish in the bigger waters as they are now too turbid and/or polluted. They have vanished from some of these major rivers and their tributaries due to what I believe are changes to their environment, Dams and other man made causes. Their biggest enemy now is the introduction of Rock bass to their waters. 

Oh, Where are they found? I could list a few then everyone would go there and put a lot of pressure on them so I will list everywhere I know them to be. This is not exact as there are surely other places. As I said I could list a few places but then these places may get a lot of pressure so that is why I have chose to list everywhere I have known them to be.

Here we go

1. Roanoke Basin..... Nottoway, Stoney creek, Meherrin, Blackwater (both), Pigg, Smith(above Philpott & from the NC line to Eden), Dan, Towne Creek, Falling river, Otter river and possibly a few others. Almost forgot, how could I almost forget that they are in the Roanoke River !!!!

2. Tar Basin....Tar river, Fishing Creek, Swift Creek, Little Fishing Creek

3. Neuse Basin...... Eno, Little, Flat, 2nd Little river, Mill Creek

4. Cape Fear Basin. Introduced.....Deep River, Brush Creek, Richland Creek, Rockfish Creek (one of the previous state records was caught in rockfish creek)

5. Yadkin Basin. Introduced Uwharrie, Little , and a few tributaries of Lake Tillery


I first encountered the Roanoke in the Eno River back in the 70's.

Here is a picture of a winter NC Roanoke Bass From the Eno 


and a spring caught Roanoke


Here's a Virginia Redeye From the Nottoway


Here are some of the lures I use to catch  Roanoke Bass


Here is a Roanoke from the Uwharrie...never caught any lunkers there,  but ones this size are fairly common.

Here are two Citation Roanoke Bass from the Deep River Near High Falls from May 2014

These 2 were caught while fishing the Riverbassin Tournament where I placed 15th out of ~40 but these 2 didnt count .  LOL. 

and 2 more Citation Roanoke Bass from the Deep River this time up Near Coleridge, NC in August of 2013

One of my favorite Pictures of a Roanoke Bass.  Jeff caught this one in 2013 and I am in the background.

In the spring, summer and early fall I usually start off with a mepps or a small topwater bait and target Roanoke's around boulders sticking out of the water. Unlike other fish Roanoke's will often be found in the fast water around these boulders instead of the slack areas. If not there I will then target the eddies and slack areas behind rocks. They also can be found in deep water areas and under these conditions i usually start throwing a topwater bait and if no hits i sometimes go to a 4" worm. Roanoke's can be caught on practially on anything a bass will hit and for the bigger Roanoke's you should use a bigger bait. In the winter you should fish deep holes slow and with small curlytail grubs , 4' worms, or 3 inch tube jigs fished real slow.

Ideally Roanoke's are found in the upper part of our Piedmont streams, but I have seen them in the coastal plain with cypress trees and knees sticking out of the water.

Roanoke's will usually be around 8-10 inches but they are out there 1 lb plus. I have caught them up to 1.8 lbs and I will be lucky to catch one bigger than that.......note: I was up in Virginia a few years ago and was in a local hunting and fishing store. On the table in the store were several albums of customers catches and hunting successes. I was causally flipping through several of these and kept seeing the same guy with Roanoke's of 2lbs plus!......some were even pushing 3 lbs.....wow!!!! They made my 1.8 lber look puny. There use to be reports of them getting to 4 lbs though now that is unlikely with the degraded habitat. I have the gentleman's name and have tried to phone him but I have been unsuccessful. I have found out where he lives and next time I am up there I am going to stop by his house. Maybe I can get a few photos to publish. (the store is now gone and who knows where those pictures went)

Also see http://mackinncblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Roanoke%20Bass
The Roanoke is defiantly one of my favorite fishes to pursue and anything over a pound will be a battle. Good luck Mack

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