Tidelines – March 26, 2015
It’s easy to say it was the best fried river herring plate I’ve ever had, as it was the first and only fried river herring plate I ever had, but my limited herring experience shouldn’t take anything away from the fine food at Cypress Grill on the lower Roanoke River in Jamesville.
Capt. Richard Andrew, of Tar-Pam Guide Service, had brought the crew of Fisherman’s Post to the lower Roanoke to get in on a striper bite that had been a little up and down over the past week (up being 100+ fish days and down being 20-ish fish days), and with the stripers very active for us all throughout the morning hours, we figured a local-inspired lunch stop would be a nice complement to the day.
I say “local-inspired” because in addition to the obvious crowds of stripers in the area (ours was a 100+ fish day, and you can read all about it in this issue’s Guide Time on pages 32-33), all morning long the river’s shallows showcased flips and swirls, the byproduct of spawning herring.
Richard, at one point in the late morning light, trolling motored us into these shallows where we were able to see the masses of quick dark shadows in the 1-2 feet of water moving around the bases of cypress and gum trees.
So when Richard suggested Cypress Grill for lunch, a restaurant that is only open from January to May (the historical time for runs of herring, shad, and stripers), the two decisions that followed were easy to make. First, yes we would most definitely like to pull the boat up, tie off, and walk up the bank to have a hot lunch at a table in the warmth of one of the restaurant’s portable heaters. Second, yes I will have the double herring plate, please.
Capt. Richard Andrews (left), of Tar-Pam Guide Service, and Publisher Gary Hurley take a break from striper fishing on the lower Roanoke River to enjoy fried river herring plates at the Cypress Grill, located on the river in Jamesville.
The small irony here, however, is that even though the local waters are saturated with herring, there is a moratorium on the species in North Carolina. The same herring that helped create Cypress Grill is now off limits to harvest, so Cypress Grill has to bring them in from South Carolina.
The photos on the wall of the restaurant included photos of local bears and rattlesnakes, but the decorum mostly featured photos of boats that were filled up to the gunnels with herring—boats that used to drift gill nets down the river. A herring net, a wooden-framed dip net with a 6’ diameter, hung from the ceiling, and the menus that were brought to us featured a photo of the flagship meal on the cover—two headless fried herrings with a couple of sides and some hush puppies.
When you’re eating imported herring on the edge of a river loaded with that same imported species, the talk inevitably goes to fish politics. And, in my experience, when the talk goes the way of fish politics, it often ends, like our conversation did, with an agreement that we’re not against a certain amount of rules and regulations, as long as those rules and regulations are based on good data (which just as often ends with an agreement that too often there isn’t good data out there).
Back on the boat, the wind and air temperature seemed a little colder once we had left the glow of the space heater, and the four us moved a little slower with a good meal in our belly, but the hot striper action at our second afternoon stop solved both issues. Hooking 16-20” stripers on just about every cast easily had the ability to both warm us up and wake us up.
Capt. Richard Andrews of Tar-Pam Guide Service donated his time and expertise to put us on fish, but he also wanted to share the lower Roanoke experience with us. His hospitality and local knowledge added depth to our fishing trip, and I’m glad I have the opportunity to thank him in my Tidelines column (because writing a small article is a lot cheaper than reimbursing him for all the jigheads and soft plastics I lost on the river’s bottom that day).
Two nights after our trip with Richard, my wife and I had fresh striper on the grill—with a little butter and some blackening seasoning. Richard had told us that there are several ways to cook striper, so I went with a basic redfish recipe, and even though we weren’t able to keep any river herring, he had also instructed us that there are two ways and two ways only to cook herring: you either fry it up or you mess it up (but he didn’t use the word mess—he used a stronger word with alliteration).
I needed that trip with Richard to wake me up from the winter doldrums. I’m now going through tackle boxes and looking over the condition of my rods and reels. The Hurley boat is at Bailey’s Marine in Wilmington getting the spring time treatment from Bobby. And soon the weather will catch up with the official arrival of spring and all will be right with the world again.
Please keep those early spring fish photos coming in. Not everyone can go fishing with Richard, so those fish photos in our pages may help others break free from the lingering grip of winter.
