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Spirit of Moonpie and I spent June 3-5 on the Blackwater below Franklin. Whispering Bear came for one night. The water was a tiny bit high, murky, very fast and 67 degrees, which is very unusual for this time of year. Air temps ranged from 57 to 83 degrees. Trash was light, and I saw no water quality issues. 

I was hoping to see the baby eagles near the Bronco Club out and hopping around on this trip. However, I guess I was too late as I didn’t see anyone around the nest. No parents either. So, I reckon they done already flew the coop, so to speak! We did see an unusual number of osprey this trip. Very odd I have never found any osprey nests over the years. They must build them way back off of the river.

The fishing on this trip was just sorta OK. I did catch a 9-pound striper the first night. I have never before caught one fishing for catfish on the big float rig like that. It was pretty darn exciting. That gallon jug I use as a float went totally under several times. If that fish had gotten off, I would have sworn it was a 30-pound catfish. It was quite a fight. Imagine my surprise when I got it up to the boat and saw it was a striper! I caught one 3-pounder blue cat also that night. The second night was a bust, not even a good hit was had. I believe the blue cats are spawning right now. Supposedly they do not bite great while doing that. My record book does show the last week of May and first week of June to be a little less productive for blue catfish, but not too bad really… anyway I’m going with the spawn theory as to why I didn’t do so good on the cats, hhaaaa.

Speaking of stripers, wow! A friend of mine told me that around Memorial Day this year, he caught a hybrid striper in the Nottoway. I have never heard of those being here, so I sent the picture he provided to the Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) Fisheries Department. Lo and behold it was indeed a hybrid striper. And, the guy that caught the fish told me 30 years ago in the Nottoway on one day he caught several, but never saw any again until this one he just caught. So, the folks at DWR were really amazed at this. I spoke with the head of the Fisheries Department at length about it. Seems there is really not a lot of information about them in rivers. They are more known in impoundments. They are a product of stripers and white bass cross breeding, and they (hybrids) cannot reproduce, I’m told. Also there seems to be different levels of hybrid, with some having more a characteristic of the white bass and some looking more like a striper. It also is not known if they are going to take up residence in our rivers or come and go with the stripers. The regulations are also pretty confusing. But it looks like in our rivers, it’s going to be no possession from what I am told by DWR and MRC. Oh, well, we will just have to wait and see how all this works out on the two rivers we call the Nottoway and Blackwater.

Jeff Turner is the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard. To contact him about river issues, send him an email at blknotkpr@earthlink.net. He can also be followed on the Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard Facebook page. Search for “Blackwater Nottoway RiverGuard” on Facebook.