Shad Fishing

Warm water, salt water and more. Talk about it here!
Johnw
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Johnw » Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:28 pm

Fishybig wrote:
Sun Apr 26, 2020 5:27 am
Have caught them up the east branch as far as fishes eddy and some yrs heard sightings in the lower beaverkill....
I saw one caught last year in the Sunoco pool on the Beaberkill

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pm

Rusty Spinner wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:29 pm
Shad 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.
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 :o 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 day :D

Fishybig
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Fishybig » Tue Apr 28, 2020 7:23 pm

martalus wrote:
Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:13 pm
Rusty Spinner wrote:
Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:29 pm
Shad 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.
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 :o 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 day :D
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
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Tue Apr 28, 2020 8:04 pm

I don't think they were gizzard shad as gizzard shad average 10-11 inches and all the fish I caught were 14-20 inches and in the 2-6 pound range.
They were probably a mix of hickory shad and American shad-there are some subtle differences which I can't discern. The main differences I saw were that some were very fat and probably female. Also some were quite dark meaning that they had been in Fresh water long and some were fresh and silvery, meaning they more recently arrived from the salt. Generally, the Potomac does see a mix of Hickory and American.

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Rusty Spinner
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Rusty Spinner » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pm

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.
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.
"A sinking fly is closer to Hell" - Unknown

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:29 pm

Rusty Spinner wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pm
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.
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.
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.

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Rusty Spinner
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Rusty Spinner » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:14 pm

martalus wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:29 pm
Rusty Spinner wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:12 pm
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.
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.
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.
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.
"A sinking fly is closer to Hell" - Unknown

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:35 pm

Rusty Spinner wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 2:14 pm
martalus wrote:
Wed Apr 29, 2020 1:29 pm
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.
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.
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.
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!

Troutman
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Troutman » Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:06 pm

martalus wrote:
Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:35 am
Well, 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!
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 effect
Was known as Troutman1

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Wed Apr 28, 2021 3:56 pm

Looking back at my shad post from last year, the picture I posted is definitely a gizzard shad. In my mind, gizzard shad are a small bait fish and I thought the big ones I were catching were ragged spawned out americans, but they were actually spawning gizzards. Gizzard shad get up to 2-4 pounds in the Potomac, far bigger than one would expect. Hickory shad seem to make up most of the run-they run from about 12 inches/less than a pound to pushing 20 inches/3-4 pounds. Americans do also come up the potomac, but in lesser numbers and slightly later in the year. I actually am not 100 percent sure if I have caught Americans in DC or not as some of the big hickory roe are similar size to Americans and pull like crazy too-I know that hickory have a slight underbite, but when you catch a big one that pulls out drag, you dont care if its hickory or american!

kennyp2339
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by kennyp2339 » Sun Mar 13, 2022 4:19 pm

Anyone getting ready for 2022 season?

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:58 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVXebmZUqA

Most definitely thinking about it-this shad run documentary starts off at my kid's school in Bethesda and is about the Potomac shad run and the east coast shad run more generally-I will watch it tonight with my kid to get amped up about the run. I have just restocked by shad darts and shad spoons and will take a recon mission this weekend with a buddy to Fletchers cove in DC (the unofficial capital of the Potomac shad run). With temps rebounding nicely and flows reasonable, we might find some early shad as well as walleye/smallie/crappie/perch. Happy shad season to you all!

kennyp2339
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by kennyp2339 » Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:43 pm

Nice, I'm determined to catch some in the Delaware this year, NY,NJ,PA tristate line area, I've gone the last 2 years and have been skunked both years, but my first year I wasnt to serious about it, last year I was a bit more serious and this year, hopefully I can hook into a few. Looking forward to the warm temps and being outside in thinner clothes.

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Wed Mar 16, 2022 2:16 pm

Shad fishing is feast or famine-you could be catching none or you could be catching them every cast. Slight changes in flows, water temps, tactics can make a lot of difference. As simple as it sounds, you need to be in the right place at the right time in the right conditions AND you need to get your offering in the right part of the river. People claim that certain colored lures work better and there may be some truth to that, but all those other factors that I mentioned are MUCH more than that. If conditions are right, you need to be able to cast far enough and get your offering to sink towards the bottom of the water column in the channel where they are pushing upstream. I always use two lures-usually a spoon and dart or small jig in tandem. I often add some split shot or small split shot plus an egg sinker to really be able to cast far and sink fast. I try to cast from rocky points that protrude into river-the Potomac has lots of these-the Delaware has less as I remember. Or if you have access to a boat, you can put yourself right where you need to be and anchor up. Try to find someone that can show you the ropes and or spend a lot of time on the river and you will find the fish!

Fishybig
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Fishybig » Wed Mar 16, 2022 6:55 pm

Sounds like fun...maybe one day ill try targeting them and not be disappointed as bycatch

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:30 pm

I rode my bike 4.5 miles to the Potomac today at Fletchers cove-its in far NW DC and a surprisingly wooded across from some cliffs on the VA side. I met two buddies who are also looking to get into fishing and we did a little recon mission. Water flows war perfect and air temps were balmy with water temps still in the low mid 50s. To our surprise, a lot of people had the same idea and all the good rocky points were taken. After hiking around for about 35 minutes, we hiked back down and found some good spots recently abandoned. We saw a handful of shad caught, but nothing crazy. Just before calling it quits I caught two nice chunky feisty hickory shad that were about 3 pounds. It always starts out slow, but the run has begun!

kennyp2339
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by kennyp2339 » Sat Mar 19, 2022 6:31 pm

martalus wrote:
Sat Mar 19, 2022 1:30 pm
We saw a handful of shad caught, but nothing crazy. Just before calling it quits I caught two nice chunky feisty hickory shad that were about 3 pounds. It always starts out slow, but the run has begun!
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.

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Rusty Spinner
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Rusty Spinner » Wed Mar 23, 2022 11:17 am

Delaware water temps are hovering around 49 degrees. Shad may be in the river now, but won't be very active until water temps hit 55 - 62. That said, a few buddies that are local sharpies have been out and I only know of one American shad landed so far by those guys. Next week maybe for NJ waters.
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"A sinking fly is closer to Hell" - Unknown

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Rusty Spinner
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by Rusty Spinner » Wed Mar 23, 2022 11:19 am

I've been using a 7 weight with sink tip line, but wish I had a faster sink line on it most days. I tie some of my own and use small darts other times which cast well with a fly rod. They fight very well on fly rods and light tackle. A good buddy has shown me some of his best spots, so I'm sworn to secrecy. 8-) :lol:
"A sinking fly is closer to Hell" - Unknown

martalus
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Re: Shad Fishing

Post by martalus » Wed Mar 23, 2022 1:21 pm

After my first trip out this weekend I gathered some more intel on my current home river, the Potomac. Last year the VAST majority of shad that I caught here were hickory shad with only a small handful of Americans. I ran into the manager of the Fletchers boathouse (the unofficial capital of the DC shad run and fishing more broadly) and he said that while hickories are more numerous than Americans here, there are still more Americans than you think as they tend to hug the bottom of the channel during the run. With the main channel often more than 20 feet deep and the middle part of the water column being a traffic jam of hickories, your lure/dart will often get picked up by a hickory before it even has a chance to sink down and get hit by an American. Also, hickories will sometimes come closer to shore, making them more accessible for shore anglers like me.

The above commentary is more or less irrelevant for Delaware river shad fishermen except for the fact that you still need to get your offering near/on the bottom for American shad there too. If anyone is down in DC in the next 30-45 days, happy to show you spots here!

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