WALTER TAYLOR,STAFF WRITER

ELIZABETHTOWN — It takes more than high and muddy water to keep enthusiastic anglers away from the Cape Fear River. Dublin’s David Vann took advantage of a sunny afternoon on the next to the last day of February to fish under the bridge at Elizabethtown. An early taste of spring stoked up a mild case of fishing fever for Vann and his two young friends, Jeremy Willoughby and Austin Lennon.

Together, they toted rods and a bucket of live minnows to the shore. Since bites were slow, they had plenty of time to talk about past fishing trips on the river and better days to come when spring arrives for real. Vann began fishing on this river back in the 1960s and has a lot of tales to tell. Of course, he likes to brag about a 68-pound blue catfish he caught a couple of years ago from the river near Tar Heel.

“We used to swim in the river,” he said. “I have had fish brush up against me that were bigger than me.”

Vann said he stopped swimming in the Cape Fear after spotting a full-grown alligator just downstream from the bridge at Elizabethtown.

Other monsters swim in the dark water, Vann said.

“I have seen sturgeons in this river longer than a 14-foot boat,” he said.

Several years ago he saw a friend get a sturgeon tangled up in a shad net. He watched the fish drag the boat sideways through the water.

Though not a biologist, Vann feels like the Cape Fear offers good fishing for careful anglers.

“A lot of people have drowned in this river,” he said. “There is a reason they call it the Cape Fear.”

There are people who fear for the future of the largest river basin in the state. The Cape Fear drains 9,322-square-miles of land with 6,204 miles of streams, according to a watershed map published by N.C. State University. At Mermaid Point, just above Sanford, the Haw and Deep Rivers meet to form the Cape Fear that runs almost 200 miles before emptying into the Atlantic.

Every month, a group of biologists and engineers meet at the Army Corps of Engineers office in Wilmington to discuss the future of the Cape Fear River. Among other issues, they are considering removing or modifying three sets of locks and dams on the river. No commercial barges and few recreational boats use the water control structures now. They serve as barriers to prevent fish from swimming upstream to spawn.

‘World-class fishery’

Fishery Biologist Mike Wicker studies the river for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After 15 years of working on the Cape Fear, he is optimistic about the river’s future.

“We could have a world-class fishery on this river one day,” he said.

For now, many species must swim up the river from the Atlantic to reach their ancient spawning grounds, but locks and dams bar the way. Lock masters open the structures to allow some fish to pass but that is not the best way to restore the fishery. Wicker and other officials are discussing ways to make it easier for the fish to get upstream, while still keeping the water level high so intake pipes can supply about 250,000 humans who live in the lower Cape Fear Valley. Options include removing the locks altogether or modifying them.

Wicker said the group is leaning toward a solution he calls a rock arch ramp. For this technique, engineers pile up rocks against the existing dams at a gentle slope so fish can swim over. This approach will also benefit fishermen.

“Fishing around these dams is very dangerous,” Wicker said. “The rock ramps would make it safe for people to walk or carry canoes over the dams.”

Such structures would open up spawning areas to the Buckhorn Dam near Erwin. Fishermen already enjoy good runs of Hickory and American Shad every spring. Striped bass follow the shad. Wicker said the striper fishery in the Cape Fear could rival that of the Roanoke River at Weldon, where anglers travel from across the country every spring to wear their arms out reeling in fish.

Endangered fish such as the Atlantic Sturgeon and short-nose sturgeon also use the river to spawn.

“Atlantic sturgeon can get 14 feet long and weigh more than 600 pounds,” Wicker said.

For now, it is illegal to catch and keep endangered sturgeons. Other rivers across the country have viable sturgeon populations. Wicker said that could happen on the Cape Fear in the future.

Better river management will benefit more than fish in the river. Wicker said if the shad have more areas to spawn, that will improve fishing not only in the river, but all the way out in the Atlantic to the Gulf Stream.

“All of your popular game fish depend on shad for food at some point,” he said.

Finding a balance

People also depend on the river. Fishery Biologist Frank Yelverton works for the Army Corps of Engineers and leads the effort to plot the future of the river. The project includes possible dredging of a ship turning basin in the Northeast Cape Fear at Wilmington. The team must decide how that will impact the estuary.

Of course, the locks and dams impede fish spawning, but they also keep the river high enough so that people can draw drinking water from two intake pipes near Riegelwood. Yelverton understands firsthand the balancing act between doing what is right for nature and for people.

“The water in my faucets comes from those pipes,” he said.

On April 18, the team will have a quarterly meeting in Wilmington to discuss their progress. Once the biologists and engineers decide what course to follow, Yelverton said it will take about three years to remove or modify the locks and dams.