Fred Bonner | Garner News

The Sans Souci State Ferry can carry two cars at a time across the Cashie River near Windsor. It is guided across the river on an underwater cable and is powered by a small engine aboard the ferry. It runs on no set schedule but, if you’re lucky when you blow your car’s horn, the ferry operator who lives nearby will hear you and take you across the river at this picturesque spot. It’s also great fishing in the Cashie River. There’s a NCWRC boating access ramp by the ferry landing.

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As the hunting seasons begin to wind down and this unusually warm weather sets in, outdoorsmen are beginning to shift gears and start thinking in terms of fishing instead of hunting. Shotguns and rifles will be cleaned and well oiled to be put into storage until next year and rods and reels will come out of storage and readied for what we hope will be a banner year for fish.

Although there are some reports of some rather small speckled trout and red drum being taken from some areas the number-one fish on the minds of many anglers is the striped bass. We seem to be looking at the leading edge of the annual migration of the striped bass (rock) from our saltwater into the fresh water flowing streams where the spawning of the stripers will soon take place.

It does seem to be a bit early for these fish to begin to mass at the mouths of the major rivers such as the Neuse, Pamlico and Roanoke but fishermen that have recently tried their luck in these areas are reporting some activity there by the rockfish. Generally they feel that this unusually warm fall and winter weather keeping the water unusually warm as well and is causing the fish to begin to think in terms of spawning. If this warmer weather holds we may have spectacular late winter fishing.

It was during just such unusually warm winter weather that Jimmy Hill from Washington (that’s “little Washington”) invited me to go along with him to fish for rock near his home at Cypress Shores. Jimmy had a good view of the Pamlico River from his living room window and when he’d see the seagulls start diving on bait fish that the rock were feeding on he’d jump in his boat that was docked in front of his house and could be casting to the fish within minutes. Jimmy was as good a rock fisherman as the Pamlico has ever seen and when he offered to take me along I jumped at the chance.

As we cast bucktails and other plugs into the area where the fish were feeding Jimmy explained that there were lots of stumps and logs in this part of the Pamlico where we were fishing. This underwater structure was what held both baitfish and predatory striped bass. Under Jimmy’s expert instruction a successful fishing trip was virtually a sure thing.

While the Neuse and Pamlico/Tar Rivers do play host to a good number striped bass year round, the numbers of stripers present in the lower parts of these waterways is small when compared to the numbers you find in the lower Roanoke River at this time of the year. Not only the striped bass are moving from the Albemarle Sound area into the lower Roanoke River, hoards of hickory and white shad are also getting into the spawning run and they’ll be moving up-river in advance of the stripers.

It was one of those early fishing trips into this lower Roanoke River area that took two of my fishing buddies and I on one of the most memorable angling days of our lives. We had ventured from the Raleigh area to Windsor to try and catch a few late winter fish. Fletcher Sanders and Sam Garrison were game to come along because we were in the throes of one of those unusually warm winter days that made a fishing trip seem feasible. All of us were suffering from cabin fever and the trip seemed to offer a cure.

We launched our boat at the Sans Souci ferry boat ramp on the Cashie River, took the Thoroughfare through the swamp over to the Roanoke River, into Broad Creek and into Cow Creek where we planned to fish. The only thing was that our warmer weather had changed overnight and by the time we arrived in Cow Creek it was blowing a gale and the temperature was in the mid-twenties.

We’d hoped to catch some of the early rock and maybe a few largemouth bass. Cow Creek in unusually deep for a creek in the Roanoke River Delta and it has proven to be productive for fishermen over many years. It was not that day. We cast our arms off and watched the water freeze in the guides of the rods. We had under-dressed for this colder weather and by mid-afternoon we were about cold enough to call the rest of the day off. Needless to say the boat ride back to the Cashie River was a long one. We didn’t catch one fish but, in retrospect, the trip with two good friends will always be a fond memory of a winter’s outing with friends.

The Roanoke River Delta is a maze of creeks and waterways that one could conceivably get lost in if you aren’t familiar with the area. It is among this tangle of waterways that the striped bass begin to gather at about this time of the year and go into somewhat of a feeding binge before the actual spawning activities begin. They spread out off the main Roanoke River in to the more shallow side creeks to find food and, if anglers are lucky and the weather cooperates a good day’s fishing can be had. The Old Timers will not tell you exactly where they usually catch these early rock but if you keep fishing away until you hit a productive spot, you can, as one of these Old Timers says, “wear ‘em out.”

A good bet at this time of the year is to troll with bucktails (or the “hairy worm” version of a bucktail) until you find the fish. Once a good area is found you can cast plugs to the rock or you can use cut bait.

Some anglers lay-in a good supply of hickory shad in the freezer a year earlier and use the cut shad for cut bait. That’s a good bait to use on these early fish.

If your fishing the Roanoke Delta or Albemarle Sound where the Roanoke dumps into the Sound, keep your eyes open for sea gulls feeding. This is usually a good indicator that there are rock feeding under the birds.

Be very sure to review the fishing regulations on striped bass at this time of the year. You’ll find this information at the NCWRC website or in their regulations digest. Seasons and regulations can (and will) change in a hurry so keep yourself informed. You can bet that the game wardens will be out there checking.