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Fisheries Biologists Kirk Rundle and Bill Collart sampled the Tar River on March 25 and March 27, launching their electrofishing boat at the Wildlife Commission boat ramp at Bell’s Bridge in Edgecombe County and sampling the Tar River from the boat ramp downstream to near the mouth of Fishing Creek.
They sampled 45 American shad and 80 hickory shad, with the largest American shad weighing three pounds and the largest hickory shad weighing about a pound and ahalf. Both were females.
The lengths of the American shad ranged from 14-20 inches, and the hickory shad ranged from 12-17 inches. About 25 percent of the American shad were female.The hickory shad were about 50/50 females and males.
“The hickory shad are peaking out and will probably be gone in a couple of weeks,”Rundle said. “This is what I said for last week’s report, yet with colder water temperatures, I think this is still true this week.”
Rundle and Collart observed one boat motoring upstream on Wednesday. The anglers in the boat didn’t stop to fish while in sight of Rundle and Collart.
Water temperatures on both sampling days was 45o F. The water level in the river was moderate, but rising and fairly muddy due to the rain on Sunday,Rundle said.
“We had no problems with launching or navigating, so anglers should be OK on the Tar too,” Rundle said.
The fish-sampling work on the Tar River is part of the Wildlife Commission’s spawning stock monitoring done weekly every spring by Rundle and Collart.
Doug Mumford of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) shared the most recent creel survey information collected from different stretches along the Tar/Pamlico River. The creel surveys are administered by the Division of Marine Fisheries through Coastal Recreational Fishing License funding, and the N.C.Wildlife Resources Commission assists with design and data interpretation in the upper portions of the Tar River.
In the upper reaches of the Tar River from Greenville to Rocky Mount, Mumford reported many shad landed during the first part of last week.
“However,as water levels began to drop, the fishing fell off,” Mumford said. “Very few fish were landed last weekend. Anglers did provide anecdotal reports of striper catches between Tarboro and RockyMount.”
In the lower part of the Tar/Pamlico rivers from Greenville to Washington, anglers reported fair catches of stripers last week, with many slot-sized fish released.
“The striper bite is best on falling water,” Mumford said. “Good catches of speckled trout were reported from Blount’s Creek. Tranters Creek was producing some very good crappie catches too.”
Fisheries Biologist Bill Collart records sampling data from this week’s Tar River fisheries survey.