Caney Fork Trout Fly Fishing - Caney Fork Trout Guide

TrophyFishingTN.Com
Videos

Striper, Trout, Smallmouth, and Musky, guide trips in the Nashville area. Our home waters are Cumberland and Caney Fork River and our specialty is fly fishing for Trout and Stripers.

~Our tradition is that of the first man who sneaked away to the creek when the tribe did not really need fish~

Author Topic: One that you might not see every day  (Read 1464 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

gaspergou

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 928
  • Karma: +2/-0
One that you might not see every day
« on: September 08, 2013, 07:01:00 PM »
…so my wife made plans to visit some friends in Raleigh this weekend, which gave me the opportunity to chase some different fish. Most folks think about rock bass as being fun but usually small. The Roanoke bass is a pretty cool species in the same genus as rock bass, but which is restricted to the Roanoke, Tar, and Neuse rivers in VA and NC. It differs in getting much larger than rock bass -- to  nearly fifteen inches and just under four pounds! They routinely get into the 10-12" range, which is probably helped by a 2-fish daily limit and an 8" minimum length limit! These things are little Piedmont groupers -- they pull disproportionately hard for their size!

I only had few hours on Saturday afternoon to fish, so hit a small stream a little ways out of town. The first pool I walked up on had four largemouth in the 15-17" range swimming leisurely along. I dropped a clawdad in front of the lead fish and he immediately raced forward and inhaled it. I released that fish and saw the others were milling around, looking like they were wondering where the crayfish went. I wound up catching all four of them, they never caught on. They must not get pressured very hard!

The next cast was against a rock bluff, and it paid off with the target species. I probably released two dozen nice Roanoke bass. I was wet wading without phone or camera, so I only got a few photos of a couple of the last fish I caught -- I ran back up to the car to grab my big camera. This time of year the most obvious difference from rock bass is the lack of a black border on the median fins; in the spring, Roanoke bass turn jet black with small brassy-gold spots on the sides, an elegant and spectacular fish indeed!
 






They might not be worth the eight hour drive by themselves, but if you're in the area they're certainly worth chasing down!

Fred Mertz

  • FishHead
  • *****
  • Posts: 609
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: One that you might not see every day
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2013, 09:20:57 PM »
Cool Dave.  Thanks for sharing.
Most rock bass fight for about 2 seconds and give up.
Must be something extra in these that give 'em a fighting spirit, eh?


TheYiman

  • ****
  • Posts: 471
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: One that you might not see every day
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2013, 09:50:26 AM »
Thanks for showing us these Dave!

Nice work on picking off the Greenies too.

MikeA

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 12364
  • Karma: +65535/-4
  • https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http
Re: One that you might not see every day
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2013, 09:53:10 AM »
Freshwater Grouper.
There is not much collective security in a flock of sheep on the way to the butcher.

bd

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 2003
  • Karma: +6/-8
Re: One that you might not see every day
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2013, 11:46:20 AM »
Wow - except for the size, those fish are really almost indistinguishable from a regular rock bass.  I never would have known the difference.

Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk 2


Steve H

  • Need to fish!
  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 9493
  • Karma: +999/-5
Re: One that you might not see every day
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2013, 12:39:22 PM »
Very cool Dave, thanks for sharing.
Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum