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Fisheries Biologists Kirk Rundle and Bill Collart sampled the Tar River on May 1 this week, launching their electrofishing boat at the Wildlife Commission boat ramp at Bell’s Bridge in Edgecombe County and sampling the Tar from the boat ramp downriver to the Tarboro town boat ramp.
They captured 60 striped bass, with the fish lengths ranging from14-28 inches. Heaviest fish sampled that day was a 10-pound striper. Sex ratio was approximately 75:25males to females. All of the stripers were tagged.
Like every other day this week, May 1 was cool, overcast with a light, misty rain. Whether it was the poor weather conditions or the fact that the harvest season for striped bass ended April 30, Rundle and Collart didn’t see any boats on the water, although there were a couple of trailers in the town ramp parking lot.
According to Rundle, hickory shad are basically gone until next year, although American shad are still in the river in fairly good numbers and should be around for a few more weeks. Striped bass are still spawning and are showing up in moderately good numbers. Rundle anticipates they’ll stick around for at least another week, depending on water temperatures and flows.
Rundle reported that water temperature was 65°F and river level and flows were moderate, with the river rising due to the rain on Monday so they had no problems launching or navigation. However, Rundle anticipated some navigating issues due to low flows next week, if we don’t get more rain.
“Launching should be possible, yet making long runs will get very difficult and extreme caution should be used, if we don’t get any significant rain,” 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.
Additional Observations
In the upper region of the Tar-Pamlico River from Rocky Mount to Greenville, fishing effort for shad and striped bass fell off during the week, according to Doug Mumford of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) who 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 inthe upper portions of the Tar River.
Most of the anglers interviewed were targeting catfish and sunfishes.
In the lower part of the Tar-Pamlico River from Greenville to Washington, anglers reported good catches of stripers in the Tar River, but most were undersized, Mumford said. They also reported a significant number of hybrid striped bass mixed in the catch.
“Speckled trout fishing slowed up a bit last week, with most of the effort still in the creeks suck as Bath, Durham’s, Blount’s and North Creek,” Mumford said.
Fisheries Biologist Kirk Rundle holds up an American shad, which are still in the Tar in fairly good numbers.