Why you cannot keep one in 2026
On March 6, 2026 NCWRC's executive director signed a proclamation suspending the hook-and-line harvest season for striped bass in the Roanoke River Management Area from March 9 through April 30, 2026, which is the whole season, and the proclamation's own text closes harvest through March 1, 2027. The area is the Roanoke and its tributaries from Roanoke Rapids Dam to the mouth at Albemarle Sound plus the Cashie, Middle and Eastmost rivers. Every striper caught, regardless of condition, goes back. It is the third straight closed year: harvest was cut to four days in 2022 and six in 2023, then closed by proclamation in 2024, 2025 and 2026, and the agency's spawning-ground survey in 2023 recorded 24.3 fish per hour of electrofishing, the lowest since 1991. The rule on the books if a season is ever reopened is one fish, 18-inch minimum and nothing over 22 inches, by proclamation only.
Circle hooks above US 258 from April 1
From April 1 through June 30, in the inland waters of the Roanoke upstream of the U.S. 258 bridge, live or natural bait may only be fished on a single barbless circle hook, and all other tackle must carry a single barbless hook, meaning no barb or the barb bent flat. The single-barbless rule has been in place since 1997; the circle-hook part was added in 2023. The 258 bridge is also the line between inland waters upstream, where NCWRC has authority, and joint waters downstream through Martin and Bertie counties, which become coastal waters just below Plymouth. Shad are ten a day in combination with no more than one American shad, and largemouth are five with a 14-inch minimum. NCWRC asks that you stop fishing for stripers once the water passes 70 degrees, because release mortality climbs steeply above it.
What Roanoke Rapids reads: 1,900 in September, 8,000 to 12,000 in the run
USGS 02080500 is just below Roanoke Rapids Dam, Dominion Energy's lowest dam, with Gaston above it and the Corps' Kerr Dam above that. The Corps' water control plan says releases at Roanoke Rapids are normally limited to 8,000 cfs, may be raised to 13,700 cfs for striped bass spawning between April 1 and June 30, and to 20,000 cfs when Kerr is high, with the spawning flows set jointly with NCWRC's inland fisheries staff. Long-term monthly means are around 10,000 cfs from January through May, dropping to 5,100 in August and September. In September 2026 the gauge sat at 1,840 to 1,950 cfs between generation pulses and hit 14,400 on two of them; the pulses are what the fish and the boat ramps feel. Capt. Rod Thomas of Capt. Ponytail Guide Service puts the target plainly: the managers try to hold 8,000 to 12,000 cfs during the spawn, 20,000 is just under flood stage, and the third day of stable water is the day to be there. Dominion posts a projected flow for the next 36 hours.
March is hickory shad
The shad arrive first. Hickories show at Weldon in the first two weeks of March and hang around until mid-April, with the best of it between 52 and 58 degrees from mid-March into early April on small darts and flies, and a few four- and five-pound American shad turn up as far up as the NC 48 bridge. It is the warmup for the striper run and the same ramps serve both.
Mid-April to mid-May at Weldon
Guides make Weldon, the self-described Rockfish Capital of the World, their base from about April 15 to May 15. NCWRC's 2023 electrofishing at the spawning grounds near Weldon shows the shape of a run: 15 fish per hour on April 3 at 4,090 cfs and 14.6 degrees Celsius, 36.5 per hour on April 24 at 8,070 cfs, a peak of 51.4 per hour on May 1 at 11,200 cfs and 18.1 degrees, then 13.4 per hour on May 15 as the water passed 20 degrees. Capt. Mitchell Blake of Fish IBX and Capt. George Beckwith of Down East fish it on eight-weights with 200- to 400-grain sinking lines and Clousers, or bucktail jigs and hairy worms on conventional gear, and the run is mostly fish between one and ten pounds with the odd fifteen. Most of the fishing is from boats working the rock ledges and current seams below the rapids; wading is limited to the shoals right at Weldon at low flow.
Gaston to Plymouth: the ramps
Weldon's town ramp on Rockfish Lane, just downstream of the U.S. 301 bridge off the U.S. 158 exit from I-95, is the center of it, with three lanes and a warning about hidden rocks; Weldon Falls next door has an ADA kayak launch added in 2024. Upstream are Gaston and Odom in Northampton County. Downstream, Edwards Ferry on U.S. 258 near Scotland Neck is the first joint-waters ramp and is packed in April, then Hamilton, Williamston's River Road ramp, Astoria Landing at Jamesville, and the NC 45 and Water Street ramps at Plymouth. Roanoke River Partners maintains 20 paddle-in camping platforms along the 215-mile Roanoke River State Trail from Roanoke Rapids to the sound, reservation required.
After the run: the rest of the calendar
June: the last stripers drop back toward the sound and the barbless rule stays on until June 30; largemouth in the oxbows and cypress from Hamilton down. July and August: blue and flathead catfish on cut bait in the deep bends, and low, warm water around 5,000 cfs. September through November: catfish and largemouth, with generation pulses the only thing moving the river. December through February: the quietest months, NCWRC and DMF continuing to stock striped bass in the lower river and sound, and the managers deciding before March 1 whether a harvest season opens at all.