[piano intro] - I'm covering the upper water, you're covering the bottom and we're just catching them on both.

We're getting them up on both sides of it, aren't we?

Yeah I guess if we had an underwater camera they'd be just stacked up wouldn't they?

But right here, the other day when I was in there, that's what we were doing, we had two on top, two on the bottom and basically both rods were catching fish.

- Do you know they just sort of come up here and bottle up behind the falls here.

- Yeah.

- It's an awful good place to get them late in the run.

- [male announcer]: The Carolina Outdoor Journal is brought to you by: - [female announcer]: "Wildlife in North Carolina" magazine has been delivering stunning photography and informative articles for more than 80 years.

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[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - Welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal, where today's program will take us up on the Roanoke River and Joe, we're gonna be fishing for some late season stripers.

- That's right, we got a good show today.

When most people think about the Roanoke River and the spring run of striped bass, they think of April, latter part of April, end of early May, maybe into mid-May.

A good friend of ours, Captain David Haddock called me and said hey I'm still up here and everybody's gone but the fish are still here in good numbers.

This past spring we had a late spring and the fish were a little late, so but he said there's no pressure on them up here but lots of fish, so I said well let's give it a try.

We're using live bait today so he'll show us in Geartime how they rigged up for him, but lots of fish, no pressure, just had a great day on the river.

- We'll talk about the live bait in Geartime, and we'll catch up with Donna in the kitchen, she's got a recipe for catfish tacos.

- Yeah, it's a different recipe from her today, but adding that catfish and coming up with this Mexican dish, it's pretty tasty.

- Well, it's all about fishing today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Well Mike it's winding down, it's the end of the Roanoke year, most of these fish have spawned out, and there's still quite a few fish here but the bulk of them have spawned.

- It's been an unusual year I can say that, we were up here three weeks ago and it's - Well we didn't see the big, one or two day spawn this year that's like a two week spawn, they was spawning all the way through, a lot of them went nighttime, water warmed up in the day, they spawned at night, cool off at night, and didn't see a whole lot of fish spawning until real, real late in the afternoon.

- I can truly say this is the first time I've been to Weldon there wasn't but three boat's trailers in the parking lot there.

- Right.

- I think everybody's given up on the year but fish are still here, so let's go out and catch a few.

- Well, look put one of them shad over there in that whitewater and let's see if you catch a fish.

- I'll do it.

- Yeah we're gonna hit them both ways, we're gonna fish a bottom rig and then we're gonna drift a free line shad through the rapids here.

- For the last day or two we've been working the boat, we've got burrows with a deep hole right here, and a lot of the bait that won't do as good we go to the bottom with them and keep the swimming fish on the top water out there.

- This is the first time I fished up here in the rapids like this.

That cork just took off.

- It was like a bullet when it went across that didn't it?

- Yeah it did.

That thing probably went 10 feet to one side.

It's just right down past that little riffly water there and they're just pounding it.

- I like the rod you got, I used those rods, a size smaller trout fishing, those things are neat.

- It's a good all-round rod for fish this size.

We're just matched up real well, and that's what these little bucks such fun to catch.

- He's giving you a fit ain't he son?

- Yeah he is.

Hardy little fish.

- They are.

- Look, and he was hungry this morning wasn't he?

- He was, he missed breakfast he was ready to eat something.

- He took it and took off.

- Oh man he wasn't gonna come off either, it's right in that little patch there at the top of the mouth, there you go.

I do thank you very much.

- Never thought you'd be fishing with a trout fork on the Roanoke river did you?

: - I wouldn't have thought it until you told me about it.

But I can say - If you's using one line you really don't need it but if you got two it gives you indication where the lines are.

- That's right, they jump right on them.

- It wiggled about three times when you hit the bottom there he was, he was just.

- Well that's the important thing when they get a little, it doesn't seem like it's a finicky bite this morning but when they do get finicky that fresh live bait is hard to beat.

- And he went right on it good.

I had a bite on mine.

- Good fish.

- There you go.

They're just hanging in there, that same size.

I enjoy the feel of those fish in that current.

- They some fine little fish ain't they?

- Yeah they are.

Whether you're doing that spinning gear like we're doing now with trout, speckled trout rods, or little lighter action bait casting, or people come out with fly rods you know, it's a blast.

[splashing] They're just right back on the end of my drift.

- I tell you with the year we've had this year a lot of people would love to have a couple of those in the box.

- I know, I've seen the bucket.

- It's been a tough year.

Nice fish.

- Thank you.

- That fish is a little bit bigger.

- Well we're heading in the right direction.

Get an 18 or 20 on, that'll be good.

- Like I said yesterday we win what we call a slot fish on the Roanoke, the ones you can't keep during the keeping season, you know that.

And I guess a lot of people, they move around.

- He's back off to spawn another year.

David I know this year was the first year that they've closed the season on the blueback herrings, being able to jig them.

- You're talking about the river herring, yeah.

- Right, the river herring, being able to jig them as bait, I know that's always been a wonderful big striper bait from personal experience, so what's been your take on that this year?

- Well we've caught some fish, I'll be right honest with you, I haven't caught as many big fish but I really can't go by the year Mike, because the fish has been so sporadic, but from what the biologists say and all about the herring population, I mean they had to do something.

- Right I think it was necessary.

- I love to fish with herring, as good as anybody but maybe the population will come back.

- That's it, I hope that that that - When we can do it again, I'll catch a few on recreational rod reel enough, you know to use the bait for stripers, you just gotta wait and see.

- We can come in and throw the cast and get our shad, and we're doing just fine with that, but I agree with you, I sure do hope that they recover to the point - Right, because your herring is really one of your main baits downriver.

- Yeah.

- Up this way, a lot of people have always fished with these shad anyhow.

- Oh yeah.

- Downriver's where it's really important for cut bait and stuff, and you can get by with your hickory shad but sometimes they're gone.

You know, when it's time to fish for rock, so, maybe in years to come, if not maybe our kids'll get to fish with them if we don't.

- I hope so, I hope so.

- We just gotta wait and see.

- That's it.

Well I'm covering the upper water and you're covering the bottom and we're just catching them on both.

- We're getting them on both sides of it aren't we.

- Yeah I guess if we had an underwater camera, they'd be just stacked up wouldn't they.

But right here, the other day when I was in there that's what we were doing when we had two on top, two on the bottom.

And basically both rods were catching fish.

- Do you know they just sorta come up here and bottle up behind the falls here.

- Yeah.

- It's a awful good place to get them late in the run.

There you go.

You would think we're catching the same one over and over man, they're all the same.

- That's alright.

There's just such a resource here.

I'm, glad we can get out and enjoy it on a pretty day like this.

- That was perfect.

The bait was up top, the striper pushed him up, that was a good tug there.

- Then you saw him, you know he hit on it hard one time and missed it, then he loaded up.

- There was two or three after him then.

- There probably was a couple, yeah.

- Yeah that was two or three.

Oh yeah, I love it.

- Well I tell you what, I promise you, if the fish don't get bigger I'll bring you back here or they don't bite.

Let's get him back in the water.

- But you know these fish right here have actually gone up a little bit in size.

- Yeah, well it's been a couple hours.

They are very lively.

- Yeah this rough water like that, it's hard to get a hold of them.

- Yeah it is.

Alright.

[upbeat music] - Alright David you pried me off my hole up there and try this new spot.

- Well yesterday we were on a little bit bigger class fish here, we had caught some five, six pound fish here, and we'll give it a try, and if it don't work I'll carry you back to your hole.

- There you go, that's a deal.

- Let's stick this out here and see what happens.

- David, I can't even get my bait back in the water.

- I know you didn't want to leave the other spot, but go ahead, throw in and catch one here anyhow.

This is good fish here, Mike.

- All right let's get him in, I'm not even gonna try to get out until we get your fish up here.

- He's a feisty little fella.

- It's a whole different environment right here, it's bigger fish, you don't have that rushing water no ways.

I feel like I'm yelling at you.

That's what we're looking for.

- There what we're looking for.

That's the ones that give you the Roanoke River tug right there.

- That's right, a barbless hook comes right out.

Oh, that's a pretty fish isn't it?

- Yes sir.

- That's nice.

- Let him get, there he goes.

- Well you ruled at the other hole and two on you right now, you need to do something about this, son.

- Hey I got a catfish though.

- Yeah, you did get a catfish, didn't you.

- But now I'm getting in for the stripers.

- There you go man.

- There he is.

- About to get in trouble having to captain out there.

- This is a very nice pool.

- It has a good tug, huh?

- Yeah.

He's out there, I saw him roll about 25 yards out.

That's okay, give me a little more fun fighting him in.

- There you go.

- I'm always amazed at how - He hit it like he was a little on the hungry side.

- Yeah, he's coming to the boat.

It's funny how you get a really big one and that's where they want to go to the channel.

- This is a good fish.

- That is a nice one.

- For late season, spawned out, striper fishing on the Roanoke, I don't think you can beat.

- He's got that hook right in the corner of his mouth.

- A good 22 inch fish.

- Oh, yeah.

- Nice fish.

- Nice.

Get freshened up, there we go.

- There you go.

- All right.

- Come spunky, left spunky.

- I just settled back for a little bit of relaxation.

- Well you satisfied in this hole for the time being?

- Yeah I think we made a good move.

- All right.

- David, what do you do when you have a fish that's hooked deep?

- Well, Mike as long as you been fishing with me, you know I like to get them in the water quick as I can.

But rule of thumb on this boat, if we can't get the hook out relatively easy without hurting the fish, we cut the line close as you can to the hook, let the fish go because the hooks will dissolve.

A lot of fish end up floating down the river, you'll see some floating over a half cent hook or whatever.

Hook's the cheapest thing you're gonna buy.

[reel cranking] - Uh oh.

- Well we missed him, but anyway that's about all you get, that's the cheapest thing so cut them loose and let them go.

- I've caught them before that had the hook and the line coming out from a prior catch, so apparently if you do - And you can still eat them, so there you go right there.

- Good healthy fish, so apparently that works.

- That's what I say, snip them and let them go on.

- Snip them and slip them back in the water.

- That's it.

I had to bait this one up, this one here just snipped me.

Are you in the wrong seat or what, Mike?

- I must have to move down to the back of the boat.

Kinda checking the bait on that, he hit it on the run coming in.

I'll get him, you get your stuff in the water.

- All right.

Well I'm out there and, think they'll bite up here much longer this year?

- You may be getting a bite right now, so - Oh, there you go.

Well I'm not complaining David, you made a good move.

- I'm not sure man, but it appears the size might be going up a little bit on this ramp.

- We were talking about, sometimes a ship means - I told you, if you don't catch any fish, I'll carry you back to your hole you were in this morning.

- Oh, you know, moving to a new hole, you get on a different pot of fish.

- Well you got to move, the fish move, it's good if you always wanting to you want to fish the same spot, but if it ain't happening, you got to go to the next.

A little bit bigger fish, I hear them rattling the water a little bit here anyhow.

- Yes sir.

- Good fish, good fish.

- Oh yeah, that's moved up a few inches there.

All right, yeah okay.

I'm not complaining, I'm not complaining.

At least I can hear you now, I love to hear that water but I tell you what, that roar back there after a while, you're going man.

All right let's bait him up and do it again.

- I'm ready.

- See that one hit it, he hit it, he came down on it good.

- I'm gonna go ahead and pull in since you're hooked up.

- We don't want to have it ford it just like yours did, he got hold of the fish, he's just sitting there with it, Mike.

- Yeah, pretty fish.

Coming up here too.

- He don't like that boat.

- Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's what we're talking about.

- Watch that barbless hook.

- I didn't mean to do, I didn't mean to let him off.

- It didn't stick you did it?

- He shook it off.

- That's okay.

- Joe, that was a good day of fishing.

You basically had the river to yourselves.

- Oh, absolutely again, this was late May, right at the end of May and traditionally most everybody's gone and the fish are generally gone by then.

Actually the fish left the river, that part of the river three days after we were there, so we were kind of pushing, but he wanted to show that it could be done during the late season run, that the fish a lot of times do stick around.

But we had a real pretty day, again, nobody else on the river, maybe a couple boats, but just had a lot of fun.

- Let's catch up and find out more in Geartime about using that live bait.

[pleasant music] - Well David, here it is Memorial Day Saturday.

It's usually a iffy time to be fishing on the Roanoke for stripers, but I just felt like I had to do it one more time and you gave me a call and I appreciate it, we've had a good day.

- Yep it's been a real good morning, Mike.

I told you we were catching, well we were catching a little bigger fish than we were in the rapids, but we got you up there, got you on some fish on the free line this morning.

- Yeah I had a really good time.

As you know, just using a 6.5 foot, medium action spinning rod and suspending a free line shad about three to four feet below the cork which was just a good strike indicator.

- Coming up on those rocks and - He would keep that shad off the bottom, so I had a really good time with those fish on the shallow bite and then you pried me off that hole, brought us down here to another spot and we got on the bottom with some shad here.

- You talking about shad, that was some nice ones we had today.

What you wanting to do is, what are you using, shiners, whatever you need something that will keep your bait good and fresh.

This hot weather is really really tough.

- It's a good bait tank.

- I had a time prying you out of that hole, how'd you like it when we got out here and the size picked up a little bit?

- I liked it, we switched up the gear - Went to the bottom here with, we put a little weight on here and went down to the bottom.

- Right, we're on a hole here, the fish were biting, a little better class of fish.

It was just a good variety day, some spinning gear, some bait casting, bottom fishing, mid-depth fishing, a little top water action, it was really a great day.

I appreciate it.

- We hope you can use that information if you're planning on fishing on the Roanoke River anytime soon.

Now, let's catch up with Donna, she's in the kitchen.

She's gonna make some tacos using catfish.

[pleasant music] - Hi, today in the kitchen we're making catfish tacos with a citrus slaw.

It goes together really quick and easily so if you're coming home from work or you're coming in from hunting or fishing all day, this is something that you can put together in just a few minutes and have a great meal.

Let's go ahead and get started.

We're gonna start out with our in your oven breader, we're gonna put that in our bag.

Then we're gonna make these a little spicy, we're gonna use some spicy breader, or if you'd like you can always add some citrus breader or you can leave them plain, depending on what your family likes or what you're in the mood for.

We're gonna just give that a shake to combine both the breaders in our bag.

Then we're gonna add in our catfish filets and you can cut this into strips if you'd like.

If you would like them to cook a little bit quicker, just cut them into strips.

We're just gonna throw in a couple of these.

Give it a good shake, make sure it all gets coated well.

Then we're gonna place this on our baking sheet, which I've lined with a nonstick foil just for easy clean up purposes.

We're gonna bake this at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

If you've cut them into strips, it won't take quite that long to cook, so just depending on the size of your filets, you can kind of gauge your time.

We're just gonna put that aside and while those are baking in our oven, we're gonna make up our slaw.

You can do this before, actually I would do this the night before, that way all of your flavors have a chance to combine and, like they say, to marry.

They'll be nice and good and yummy.

We're gonna add in some red onion to our cold slaw mix and what I did is I just bought some cabbage that was cut, it's called angel hair cabbage at the grocery so you don't have to take time to do that yourself.

We're just gonna add in about a third of a cup of red onions that I've sliced real thin, then we're gonna add in some bell peppers, some red bell peppers, you can see there's lots of great color in this as well.

A little bit of some lemon wedges, I just took the lemons, I peeled them and then I just chopped the lemon pulp.

You can also use some lime and I use some mandarin oranges, if you have oranges, you can use your fresh oranges, but I always keep these in my pantry so they're something that goes together quick for me, I always have it and it looks really pretty and it doesn't take any time at all.

Then we're going to add some fresh basil and some fresh cilantro that's been chopped and toss that together, you can use your hands or you can use a spoon if you'd like.

See all those great colors together.

It's just gonna be great flavor and great texture together.

We're gonna add just a little bit of olive oil to this and a little bit of some seasoned vinegar.

If you like, I like to use a little bit more vinegar and less oil, try to keep it a little bit healthier and add some nice zesty flavor to it.

Once your slaw has marinated and your fish filets have come out, we're gonna put this together and you can either grill your tortillas if you'd like or if you have a gas cooktop, you can put them on your gas cooktop, just light it and then you can brown those a little bit or if you're in a pinch, just go ahead and pop them in the microwave for about 15 seconds and they'll steam up for you.

You're gonna take your fish filet and then you're just going to take some of your citrus slaw and put it on top, you can add some sour cream if you'd like, or you can add black beans if you want to add a little bit more and you're ready to go.

They're great flavor, let's take a look and I'll show you some over here that I've already plated.

You can go ahead and plate them up or just set them out on the bar and let everybody have their own, but they're nice and crunchy and spicy from the fish and then you get all the great flavors from your slaw.

I hope you enjoy the catfish tacos with citrus slaw.

And I look forward to seeing next time, here on simple cooking.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, that's one you'll want to keep and give it the try.

Now Joe, let's go back to the river.

Catch and release, that was the order of business that day.

- That is and the season's over with as far as keeping any fish, but again, lots of fish.

Sometimes you can have a problem getting the bait, David's got it figured out how he's manages to have a good number of bait because you go through them, it's a pretty, when the fish start biting, pretty fast paced action and having lots of fresh bait makes a difference, but he was kind of disappointed we didn't catch any larger class fish that day, the day before he had a party and actually caught some bigger fish, but I was happy.

We caught a lot of fish and caught a couple nice ones.

But being up there with pretty much the river to yourself to me, makes all the difference in the world and we just had a lot of fun.

- It was a peaceful day.

- It was.

- And another great day to fish in North Carolina.

- No question.

- For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore, thank you for joining us today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [male announcer]: Make sure to visit our website for more information.

- The Carolina Outdoor Journal is brought to you by: - [female announcer]: "Wildlife in North Carolina" magazine has been delivering stunning photography and informative articles for more than 80 years.

- [male announcer]: And by EZ Bait & Tackle.

Family owned and operated.

We fish from fresh to saltwater.

We provide fishing supplies and advice to every type of angler.

For all your fishing needs, EZ Bait & Tackle.

- And by contributions from PBS North Carolina viewers like you.

[light instrumental music] ♪ ♪ ♪