Albemarle Tradewinds Jan 2015 Final Web

Rockfish in the Albemarle by Jake Worthington
Now that wintertime is here, a lot of people in Northeastern NC and Southeastern VA are hitting the water and
braving the cold fishing for Rockfish. Fishing for Rockfish is embedded in our area’s rich history. For many
years, Rockfish was a staple fish of our early economy. Every winter the Rockfish from Maine to New Jersey
start their migration back towards the Roanoke River where they will spawn in the spring. Just thinking about
how many Rockfish come back every year to the very area where they were born to spawn is quite amazing.
These fish head south and come inland from the ocean by way of Oregon Inlet. They pass through the Pamlico
Sound to the Albemarle Sound and enter the Roanoke River Basin and head toward the upper part of the river at
Weldon. Once there, the Rockfish begin to spawn. While they are there, fishermen come from near and far to
catch these trophy fish. These fish are not the size of the ones we catch here in the Pasquotank River. These fish
are 30 plus inch fish that weigh 30 plus pounds each.
It is really amazing to sit back and think that all of these fish pass right through the Albemarle area. What is even more amazing is they know how to
find their way back to the same spot where they were born. Over the last few years, the Rockfishing has been very slow in the Pasquotank River. The last
time we had a good season where the fish were schooling up was in 2006. I remember leaving our canal and heading out and immediately seeing seagulls
eating schooling baitfish. We would drop our baits and sometimes would have all four rods go down with strikes in a matter of seconds. It was catching--
not fishing.
We have had several years in which whole classes of fish have not survived the spawning process. When the fish spawn on the Roanoke River they lay
their eggs at the upper part of the river. The eggs then start their long trek down the Roanoke River headed towards the mouth at the Albemarle Sound.
The upper part of the Roanoke River is damned up by a power plant and paper mills. These businesses meet with State Fisheries Biologists and come up
with a discharge plan that will minimize the flow of the water down the river. This works most years but when we have heavy rainstorms, the run offs
from the tributaries cause the river flow to be pushed into the swamps and that is where the eggs are pushed. These eggs don’t hatch or if they do, they
don’t survive. That is how we have lost several years’ worth of fish due to heavy spring showers.
We have had several good spawning years and hopefully we will be seeing the results in the next couple of years. I look forward to the sight of boats in
the river as thick as the rockfish.
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