Re: Shad Fishing
Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:28 pm
A place to discuss trout fishing in New Jersey and more!
http://gardenstatetrout.com/forum/
The shad I was fishing for on Saturday were acting really strange-Even though the water was 10-15 feet deep, they were up in the water column and sometimes were breaking the surface for no reason that I could discern. The location I was fishing was perfect as it was this boulder encircled, swimming pool sized slack water cove, immediately adjacent to some major rapids. I assume the shad were making their way upstream and stopping to rest in this slack water. I caught fish up in the water column but did catch the biggest fish near the bottom like you said. I have read several more research papers on shad-apparently they strike darts/spoons/streams because minnows tend to eat shad eggs. Thus, they surmise that shad are reaction striking out of the instinct of protecting their eggs. I was actually the only guy fishing for shad where I was-all the other guys were subsistence fishing for white perch and were annoyed when they caught a shad as it had to be released. I did talk to one fly fisherman as I was hiking back to my car who was targeting shad-he snapped his 7 weight after 20 minutes of catching shad If you can time the run right, shad fishing can be a real good time! If you can get lucky like I did and get a combination white perch/shad run, it can lead to an epic dayRusty Spinner wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:29 pmShad run in water below 50 degrees, they just won't eat a fly or dart or spoon unless its more or less 50 degrees and warmer. Remember, American shad are in the herring family and are plankton feeders, so they are not even eating but rather striking at something flashy that mimics nothing in nature. That said, ample places to wade fish the big D if it doesn't climb too high, but water temps as of today remain far too cold to catch consistently.
I'm using a 9 foot 7 weight with a Type 3 sink tip line, a short 4' leader with 2' of 4X tippet attached to that (mine is 7.5 lb test) and weighted flies with dumbbell eyes. Fish run up the thalweg which is the deepest part of the channel and remain a foot to two feet off bottom. So you have to get down and stay down to catch fish.
Were all the shad you were catching that type?? I think some type of gizzard shad by ur previous pics....were there any American shad mixed in???martalus wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pmThe shad I was fishing for on Saturday were acting really strange-Even though the water was 10-15 feet deep, they were up in the water column and sometimes were breaking the surface for no reason that I could discern. The location I was fishing was perfect as it was this boulder encircled, swimming pool sized slack water cove, immediately adjacent to some major rapids. I assume the shad were making their way upstream and stopping to rest in this slack water. I caught fish up in the water column but did catch the biggest fish near the bottom like you said. I have read several more research papers on shad-apparently they strike darts/spoons/streams because minnows tend to eat shad eggs. Thus, they surmise that shad are reaction striking out of the instinct of protecting their eggs. I was actually the only guy fishing for shad where I was-all the other guys were subsistence fishing for white perch and were annoyed when they caught a shad as it had to be released. I did talk to one fly fisherman as I was hiking back to my car who was targeting shad-he snapped his 7 weight after 20 minutes of catching shad If you can time the run right, shad fishing can be a real good time! If you can get lucky like I did and get a combination white perch/shad run, it can lead to an epic dayRusty Spinner wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:29 pmShad run in water below 50 degrees, they just won't eat a fly or dart or spoon unless its more or less 50 degrees and warmer. Remember, American shad are in the herring family and are plankton feeders, so they are not even eating but rather striking at something flashy that mimics nothing in nature. That said, ample places to wade fish the big D if it doesn't climb too high, but water temps as of today remain far too cold to catch consistently.
I'm using a 9 foot 7 weight with a Type 3 sink tip line, a short 4' leader with 2' of 4X tippet attached to that (mine is 7.5 lb test) and weighted flies with dumbbell eyes. Fish run up the thalweg which is the deepest part of the channel and remain a foot to two feet off bottom. So you have to get down and stay down to catch fish.
What you witnessed was physical spawning and the water you described is exactly what American shad need to spawn in. There's a formula for measuring shad spawning habitat that takes into affect depth and (slower) current speed where they do exactly what you saw them do, the nasty.martalus wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pm
The shad I was fishing for on Saturday were acting really strange-Even though the water was 10-15 feet deep, they were up in the water column and sometimes were breaking the surface for no reason that I could discern. The location I was fishing was perfect as it was this boulder encircled, swimming pool sized slack water cove, immediately adjacent to some major rapids. I assume the shad were making their way upstream and stopping to rest in this slack water.
Well, that explains why the fishing was so good and why many of the shad were looking ratty and spawned out. Looking at a map now, I see the Little Falls dam is a only few hundred yards upstream from where I was fishing and that blocks most of them from migrating upstream to spawn, thus the few hundred yards I was in is their main spawning area! I think one fishing trip this season is sufficient and I will leave them do their thing. The white perch bite was even more nuts-apparently in DC there is no limit and the fish, while native, is season as a nuissance. Those white perch were probably eating up the Shad eggs.Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pmWhat you witnessed was physical spawning and the water you described is exactly what American shad need to spawn in. There's a formula for measuring shad spawning habitat that takes into affect depth and (slower) current speed where they do exactly what you saw them do, the nasty.martalus wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pm
The shad I was fishing for on Saturday were acting really strange-Even though the water was 10-15 feet deep, they were up in the water column and sometimes were breaking the surface for no reason that I could discern. The location I was fishing was perfect as it was this boulder encircled, swimming pool sized slack water cove, immediately adjacent to some major rapids. I assume the shad were making their way upstream and stopping to rest in this slack water.
Wow, that's a cool thing to witness and to put together. The white perch were gorging themselves on a high protein egg shake. And shadlings will feed the smallies and others for months to come.martalus wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:29 pmWell, that explains why the fishing was so good and why many of the shad were looking ratty and spawned out. Looking at a map now, I see the Little Falls dam is a only few hundred yards upstream from where I was fishing and that blocks most of them from migrating upstream to spawn, thus the few hundred yards I was in is their main spawning area! I think one fishing trip this season is sufficient and I will leave them do their thing. The white perch bite was even more nuts-apparently in DC there is no limit and the fish, while native, is season as a nuissance. Those white perch were probably eating up the Shad eggs.Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pmWhat you witnessed was physical spawning and the water you described is exactly what American shad need to spawn in. There's a formula for measuring shad spawning habitat that takes into affect depth and (slower) current speed where they do exactly what you saw them do, the nasty.martalus wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pm
The shad I was fishing for on Saturday were acting really strange-Even though the water was 10-15 feet deep, they were up in the water column and sometimes were breaking the surface for no reason that I could discern. The location I was fishing was perfect as it was this boulder encircled, swimming pool sized slack water cove, immediately adjacent to some major rapids. I assume the shad were making their way upstream and stopping to rest in this slack water.
It was definitely a unique experience and one of top five fishing days of my life-number one in terms of number or fish caught!Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:14 pmWow, that's a cool thing to witness and to put together. The white perch were gorging themselves on a high protein egg shake. And shadlings will feed the smallies and others for months to come.martalus wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:29 pmWell, that explains why the fishing was so good and why many of the shad were looking ratty and spawned out. Looking at a map now, I see the Little Falls dam is a only few hundred yards upstream from where I was fishing and that blocks most of them from migrating upstream to spawn, thus the few hundred yards I was in is their main spawning area! I think one fishing trip this season is sufficient and I will leave them do their thing. The white perch bite was even more nuts-apparently in DC there is no limit and the fish, while native, is season as a nuissance. Those white perch were probably eating up the Shad eggs.Rusty Spinner wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pm
What you witnessed was physical spawning and the water you described is exactly what American shad need to spawn in. There's a formula for measuring shad spawning habitat that takes into affect depth and (slower) current speed where they do exactly what you saw them do, the nasty.
Congrats. Thats some nice looking waters there. Shad can be had in the Delaware water gap in NJ. Shad are extremely fun to fish. You have to treat them like crappies. They have that paper mouth effectmartalus wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:35 amWell, I got inspired and did a couple days of research on shad fishing tactics, lures, conditions and locations and it paid off big time. I was tracking water flows, temps, turbidity, and tides and was on the foggy Potomac at 6 am yesterday.
It took me about 15-20 min walk along canal and then through the woods to get to this rocky little cove adjacent to some class 3-4 rapids. When I got there some nice Salvadoran were already setting up for the white perch run on the other side of cove and kindly recommended me the best spot for shad and boy they were not wrong. The action was non stop for four hours with a mix of 2-5 pound shad-some were fresh and silver and pulled like freight trains, other were looking ragged and spawned out like the one in the pic. Shad have very soft mouths so I actually lost more than I landed, but I landed dozens. I also caught some white perch pushing 2 pounds in the morning. I went home by 10 am with my hands and shoulders sore!
I got my daughter and came back out again from 1-4 and we literally caught hundreds of white perch and some more fresh shad mixed in. There were more folks there in the afternoon for the white perch run filling up spackle buckets. It was the best day of fishing I have ever seen. I was fishing a medium spinning rod with 8 pound test and various tandem rigs of shad darts and spoons- my drag got a work out, but 8 pound test was sufficient and I only broke off one fish all day when it got wrapped around a rock. Unbelievable that this kind of fishing exists right in DC!
Excellent news, you guys are a couple weeks ahead of me so that puts prospects around 1st / 2nd week of April for myself which is right on time, I did see a report of some action just south of Easton PA on the river, water temps still in the low 40's though, I was at a bbq yesterday and I think I got 3 more people interested in going with me on the delaware, so things are starting to amp up.