March is about done but its been a productive month on the water. Weather has been pretty decent with some exceptional temps some days and some days it reminds you its still March but very typical of this time of year. Started out the month taking a week off with my son for his Spring break. We fished 6 days out of 7 and fished for stripers, shad, trout, and smallmouth bass. It was a great week spent with him and his birthday week. Since he just really got the fishing bug last year I'm doing my best to make up for lost time. He his becoming quite the angler and doing it very quickly. I believe he's trying to take the old mans job.
The trout fishing is in full swing and the fish are getting happier by the day with more aquatic insects hatches. Although I have been off the mountain streams lately my son has been burning them up when his mom will take him. March Brown mayflies are hatching and the dry fly fishing has really gotten good from his reports and my head guides. I have been primarily on the Jackson River tailwater below Lake Moomaw. Fishing has been slower than usual for good reason. Water temps are still in the low 40's which is rare to see the temps this low in March. What it has done to the fishing is kept the trouts metabolism slow and they haven't needed to eat as often and not willing to move very far for food. The one benefit of the cold temps is we have been catching mainly all really nice browns and rainbows. The bigger fish need to eat more often. The water is starting to creep up to the mid to high 40's which have brought out some of the smaller or more average size fish. Fish numbers will improve as we get water temps in the 50 and above range.
I have only been out twice for pre spawn smallmouth bass this month but both trips were outstanding. I just seemed to have more interest this month in trout fishing. Streamer fishing is the game now, some days we are throwing heavy streamers and fishing slow if water temps have them sluggish or going to a baitfish fly if they are willing to chase down their food. Really depends on the day and the temps on what you may see just be prepared to change things up to produce the bites this time of year.
For the past few years I started taking a week in Roanoke Rapids, NC to guide the Hickory and American shad run. I just returned from there this past Sunday. It was a great week spent with clients catching on average 16-18" shad on 6 and 7 weight rods. Although I wouldn't want to guide shad everyday it sure is a lot of fun for a week. Its the easiest guiding I get to do and the most action anglers can see in a day. I run five hour trips when I'm there two a day. We had multiple over a hundred shad on fly each trip with the best being 150 with two anglers. It should be called catching not fishing with the shad run! Some really nice fish this year as well. Had only one really tough day and it was the first time I have had a tough day fishing for shad. The day I arrived the area received 3.5" of rain and the river blew out the following day making the bite very tough. Thankfully things turned around after that. Big thank you to everyone that came to experience the run with me and look forward to next years run!
