Here is a writeup written by Saw Wilson The owner of the now defunct American River Fishing Forums where he and myself fished the Eno River trying to get him his first Roanoke Bass Ambloplites cavifrons. This is from 2007. This forum was a wonderful site full of great fishermen and I made many great friends on there . Thanks Sam.
*****Click on the pictures/writing to make them bigger to read **********
Today my quarry was the Rare Roanoke bass and Largemouth bass. I put in a paddled down river aprox a mile and hit 1 hole and thats where I stayed catching a whopping 10 Citation size Roanoke Bass! Here in NC you can get a Citation (Certificate of Acomplishment ) for any Roanoke Bass 11 inches or greater or 1 lb or greater. The most I had ever caught in one outing was 2. Today was maybe my best day ever fishing as 10 Citiation Roanoke Bass is like catching 10 - 8 lb largemouths.
These fish were all holding in one pool behind boulders and ledges.
As of today these are the biggest on video but note I do have another video coming out where we catch 9 with a bigger average size which will surpass this video.
Here are some pictures and then the video.
And now the video, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and this Blog!
I had eagerly awaited this stop in Charlotte but I had a problem....My best spots which were inbounds the last 2 Times in Charlotte(2011, 2013) were now out of bounds. I finished 4th both of those years and being able to hit my honeyholes surely helped. This time I was forced to fish a section of river I had never fished. My plan was to start off with a white spinner bait, a few topwaters and a fluke.
Legal fishing time was 6 am and by the time I was on the water it was 6:15. My first cast yielded nothing but my second cast with the spinnerbait brought on a vicious strike. I was expecting to have a good solid 2-4 lb bass by the fight but was a little shocked to haul in a good solid 13-14 inch Roanoke bass. Awesome! Citation size in North Carolina for this species is 11 inches or 1 pound and this one would make that easily. I was so surprised(and half asleep) that I didn't get an exact measurement on this fish but it was a good start even though this fish didn't count for the tournament.
Several cast later and my bait is slammed again. My first Largemouth of the day??. No, another citation size Roanoke bass at a solid 12 inches! Not the fish I was after but I will never complain about catching big Roanoke's.
Here are a few pictures of these fish.
The Bigger Roanoke Bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons )
The 12 inch Roanoke
A little while later I landed a 11 inch largemouth but I would need fish a lot bigger than that. Several cast later I landed the first decent Largemouth of the day.
Not bad but I would need bigger fish to do well in this tournament. I ended up catching only 7 or 8 bass with the best 3 all being around the 15 inch mark.
My 3 best Bass fell to the White spinnerbait, Pearl Fluke and Zara Spook.
I ended up with 45.5 inches which put me in 15th place. I just couldn't get that good solid 21 to 22 inch fish that would have put me in the top ten. I was still happy finishing 15th out of 38 entries since this was my first time at this strtch of river.
Friday 8/10/13 Jeff and I made plans to go to a stretch of river we had never fished from canoe. I had bank fished the put in of this section. We have fished this river a lot but a good ways downstream and a good ways upstream but we had never floated this section. This river also has Roanoke bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons ) in it which were stocked years ago but they are confined to an aprox 15 mile stretch and I had heard reports they were doing well. Jeff had never caught one so even if he only caught 1 that would be a great day. If I also caught one it would be great as well as this would make the fifth flow I have caught them out of. (Eno, Fishing Creek, Uwharrie, and the Nottaway in Virginia being the 4 where I have caught them)
We arrived at the launch right after daylight and immediately started catching Bass on spinnerbaits and buzzers. About 1 mile down river I hooked a very nice Roanoke bass which snapped my line and confiscated my Mepps Minnow #3 !..Not good. We then came upon a nice pool at the bottom of a long shoal and after catching a few bass Jeff hooked and landed his first Roanoke which was also Citation size. For a citation in NC a Roanoke Bass must be 11 inches long.
We continued our float downstream for 2.5 miles then made the journey back up dragging our canoes through shoals. We found another nice hole that we had evidently paddled right over and caught many Roanoke's out of it. I caught 2 citations( 11 3/4 in , 11 5/8 in) and I think Jeff caught his 2nd citation in there as well. It was a great day on a new stretch of river. I think we caught about 20 bass a piece , Jeff caught about 10 Roanoke's to my 6 or so and we each caught right many redbreast.
The lures I mainly used for the Roanoke's were the Mepps Minnow, and a small Rapala. Jeff caught his on a variety of lures including a small beetle spin type lure , a crankbait, and a curlytail jig.
One of my Favorite pictures of a Roanoke bass. Jeff took this picture we me in the Background.
I Haven't had a lot of time to fish this year so most of my 'trips"have been short trips. Tuesday April the 3rd would be more of the same. I had an Appointment to take care of some of my mothers stuff this am and this evening I had a Lodge meeting so that meant no canoe trip today.
I started off at first light at a spot where I have spent many wonderful mornings. Today I caught 3 bass and lost 2. All on Black Chug Bug.
At 8:30 I had to hit the road for my appointment. I then went to a local river in search of some Bass and Roanoke Bass . I arrived at the pull off at aprox 2 pm and fished till 3 pm. Very few hits but I did Manage to land a couple of Roanoke Bass aka "Redeyes" .
Today for Roanoke Bass I used a #2 Mepps Minnow w/ a Silver Blade. Gold also works great .
How and Where to Catch Roanoke Bass - Ambloplites cavifrons
****SEE A REALLY GOOD VIDEO OF SOME HUGE ROANOKES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE*******
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 Neusedrainage'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)
I enjoy anything in the outdoors. Mainly canoeing and fishing but, also hunting, hiking, I love to plant trees and also search for big trees.
I grew up just outside Burlington, N.C. where my parents house sat on a bluff overlooking the Haw River. I can thank the Haw for getting me started in the outdoors. I Have 2 YouTube Channels as well. Mack's Extreme River Fishing and Mack's Public Land Hunting.
Thnaks, Mack
