Worth. — Angling Grounds for Striped Bass 119 



said that at Halifax the fish would continue to bite till the 

 end of May, water conditions being right. This was the 

 second year of trot line trials at this high-up river point. 

 He had known two men at Hill's Ferry, 20 to 30 miles down 

 stream, to take on trot lines in one night the preceding sea- 

 son 2 large sacks of striped bass or as many as 5 bushels, 

 and he had also known 1,005 pounds taken in 2 nights and 

 1 day at the same place by 2 men in 1903. Another citi- 

 zen, a Mr. Hale, informed me that he had known 300 to 400 

 pounds to be taken on lines at Plymouth in a single day. 



From the foregoing it appears that the Roanoke angling- 

 possibilities are great when the area of the stream is con- 

 sidered, the distance from Halifax to Plymouth being ap- 

 proximately 125 miles, while the distance between Hob- 

 good and the river mouth at Albemarle Sound is in itself 

 many miles. From the information gained I infer that the 

 best part of the river, when length of season is considered, 

 is from Hobgood to Plymouth or perhaps to the very 

 mouth of the river. 



Tt may be remarked that but for the immense stretch of 

 nets in the water below, operated for shad, herring and 

 striped bass, the Roanoke River would attain renown in 

 striped bass production. That but a fractional part of the 

 run enters that river compared with the number that would 

 naturally ascend, I have all proof that I desire. Anyone who 

 will take the pains to ascertain the times that were so phe- 

 nomenal in rockfish or striped bass capture at Weldon and 

 vicinity, when hundreds of visitors poured in from surround- 

 ing counties to fish and make purchases of fish and join in 

 the great festal event of the year, with their teams of all 

 descriptions and camping outfits, will discover that it was 

 not an event of a hundred or two hundred years ago, but of 

 the closing years of the war and just after, 1864—1867, when 

 the nets and seines in the wide waters below were out of 

 commission as a result of the presence of Federal gunboats 

 which then cut off the fishing and left it crippled for a time 

 after peace was restored. 



