Shad

[Ewanflyfish]

With the Shad run on the Delaware river approaching, any of you guys target them on the fly? If so any suggestions on patterns? Thought i’d try it out for the first time this year, and am curious if anyone here ever has success on fly gear.

 

[Tigereye]

Did so years ago. Not so much recently,
tied gold dumbell eyes on gold Aberdeen hook size 8 or 10 and a few (6 to 9) strands of gold tinsel clouser style atop the dumbell. IMPORTANT KEEP THIS FLY SPARSE SPARSE SPARSE.

5 weight rod and long 12+ft straight 6lb mono leader/tippet.

Position is everything. Position yourself that you can cast across and let you fly drift downstream and hang in a channel the fish are running. Leave fly in water and vary jigging tempo. Line hand/rod tip until you unlock the presentation. Not alot of casting....it's jigging with a fly rod.

 

[Ewanflyfish]

Did so years ago. Not so much recently,
tied gold dumbell eyes on gold Aberdeen hook size 8 or 10 and a few (6 to 9) strands of gold tinsel clouser style atop the dumbell. IMPORTANT KEEP THIS FLY SPARSE SPARSE SPARSE.

5 weight rod and long 12+ft straight 6lb mono leader/tippet.

Position is everything. Position yourself that you can cast across and let you fly drift downstream and hang in a channel the fish are running. Leave fly in water and vary jigging tempo. Line hand/rod tip until you unlock the presentation. Not alot of casting....it's jigging with a fly rod.

Thanks for the response, seems like you know what you’re talking about. I’ll definitely keep in mind what you said about jigging the fly. Just one questions. Did you ever use a sinking fly line or feel you needed one for shad?

 

[Tigereye]

With the long leader and weighted fly, never had the need. Was fishing channels 2 to 3 foot deep.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Do you have much experience fishing for them from a boat / with spinning gear? I ask because my experience has been that finding fish is a significant challenge wading with a fly rod.

Back in my spinning days (so obvs the fish don't count), I would have luck trolling up and down a stretch until finding a pod and then focusing on that area. The handful of years that I put in some time with a fly rod, the wading is so tough on most of the lower D that it felt like I was just never where the fish were.

I know that lots of folks have that side of things dialed and can just park in a spot and hammer shad all day. If you are or know one of those people, that would be helpful. Then, pick up where Tigereye started.

 

[Ewanflyfish]

Do you have much experience fishing for them from a boat / with spinning gear? I ask because my experience has been that finding fish is a significant challenge wading with a fly rod.

Back in my spinning days (so obvs the fish don't count), I would have luck trolling up and down a stretch until finding a pod and then focusing on that area. The handful of years that I put in some time with a fly rod, the wading is so tough on most of the lower D that it felt like I was just never where the fish were.

I know that lots of folks have that side of things dialed and can just park in a spot and hammer shad all day. If you are or know one of those people, that would be helpful. Then, pick up where Tigereye started.

I have absolutely no experience fishing for shad at all😅. Maybe i’ll try with a spin rod first. And your right about wading the lower delaware, definitely very difficult in some stretches.

 

[Oregon_OwlII]

We had a guy named Pappy Magarill (might be butchering that last name) at one of our TU meetings to do a shad presentation. Was a very famous shad fisherman (spin equipment) and he may no longer be with us. The thing I remember most about it where the shad could be found. It was best along the seam where the fast water rubbed up against the slow water. I only tried it with a fly rod a couple of times. Nailed a couple of large fallfish on the Delaware, but never any shad. I think you could get to those seams better with a boat.

 

[lars]

i fish for them every year. not with a flyrod so much any more, pretty much use a noodle rod. it's a very spot specific fishing. also river conditions play a big part, if you're wading, high water can prevent access to spots. it can be dangerous and i always have a wading staff and definitely have korkers over my boot foot neoprenes, the water is cold. most people say they don't hit until the water get's to 50 degrees.
they're fun to catch. hard fighting fish.

 

[sandflyx]

have chased shad on fly since the 70's. wrote a article on fly fishing for them on the lower delaware wading.

 

[Bamboozle]

My introduction to shad came when I was fly fishing for bass at a small pond in Stroud Township and a guy came up to me and asked me if I ever fly fished for shad. He mentioned a couple of spots where there was access, deep channels, fish & room to cast and told me to tie flies that looked like shad darts.

I made little "shad dart flies" with yellow & white bucktail and a body by wrapping the hook with lead wire covered with large diameter yellow or pearl Mylar piping.

I knew that wasn't going to be nearly enough weight to get down and I had no clue how far I would need to cast so I fashioned my own shooting head from the head of a full sinking line spliced to heavy yellow Stren. I attached a cheap K-Mart dish pan around my waist with a bungee cord and I was set.

I went to one of the spots the guy told me about, a really deep area most often favored by shad anglers in boats. However, because of some old footers that collect sediment, a wade angler who is careful can wade right up to the deep channel from the PA side.

The only rod I owned at the time that I thought was suitable for the currents & depths at that location was a 9'6" 8wt Leonard bamboo salmon rod which weighed over 6 oz paired with a Hardy St. Aiden reel making an outfit coming a few ounces short of a pound. SOMEHOW despite not knowing squat and having no experience with that rod, I caught 4 shad that first outing!! 🙂

I soon gave up the fly rod because a spinning outfit was considerably more flexible in so many different locations, especially deep channels close to a bank where there is no room for a backcast. Those same spots are also popular with the folks that don't own boats and on more than a few occasions when I came upon a line of fishermen, I was welcomed to squeeze in between two other guys fishing along a crowded bank.

That would have never happened or been possible with a fly rod...

Even though I am a lifetime member of the Delaware River Shad Fisherman's Association and I own a copy of the requisite book "Shad Fishing by C. Boyd Pfeiffer, I haven't targeted shad for a long time because it so feast or famine if you don't fish from a boat. Bottom line, I got tired of driving an hour or more to a spot I know is good, suiting up, making a long hike down to the river and catching squat.

FWIW - In the years I was a regular non-boat shad anger I learned these things among other lessons...

Frequency will increase your odds dramatically. Most shad fishermen I know are out every day.​

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Monday's hot spot may be cold as ice on Tuesday. I have experienced this MANY times.​

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10 - 20 feet in any direction in the same channel can be like night & day in regards to catching fish.​

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If you are not catching fish, move! This is why the BEST shad anglers fish from boats.​

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Fish near river bridges. Sometimes the only way to access a spot is fishing from the other side.​

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Expect to lose a LOT of flies, darts, spoons if you are fishing at the right depth.​

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If you can't wade up to the right spot, you better be able to cast to that spot.​

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RESPECT the river!! At many spots, a few steps in any direction will be over your head.​

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Shad roe is delicious!!​

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Cook shad over a fire on a wooden plank, then throw away the shad and eat the plank. 😉​

Good luck!!

 

[lars]

that's the thing about fly fishing for them. it's not really hard to catch them on a fly, the difficulty comes in casting weighted flies and sinking lines in a line of spin fisherman. guys that fish in a line generally all work together and cast in order. furthest downstream casts first and then you go upriver. there's still tangles but for the most part the cooperation works.

later in the season when they're further upriver you can catch them on dries and have plenty of room.

 

[Ewanflyfish]

that's the thing about fly fishing for them. it's not really hard to catch them on a fly, the difficulty comes in casting weighted flies and sinking lines in a line of spin fisherman. guys that fish in a line generally all work together and cast in order. furthest downstream casts first and then you go upriver. there's still tangles but for the most part the cooperation works.

later in the season when they're further upriver you can catch them on dries and have plenty of room.

Interesting, never knew they would eat a dry.

 

[Ewanflyfish]

have chased shad on fly since the 70's. wrote a article on fly fishing for them on the lower delaware wading.

cool, do you know where’d i’d be able to find that article at?

 

[lars]

Interesting, never knew they would eat a dry.

by the time they're feeding off the surface they're not all that fresh and don't fight nearly as strong. early in the year they're a handful, but you can use a 5 wt later.

 

[Bamboozle]

I would have been hard pressed to land any shad I ever hooked on their way upriver on a 5wt outfit. The spring current on the Delaware is one problem and the fish put up a decent tussle.

Even when fishing with spinning gear it was a medium heavy rod versus the medium light rod I use for smallie fishing in the Susquehanna.

 

[lars]

you're right, early season i used to fish a nine weight. mostly to handle the heavy sinking line that was needed in the high Spring flows. Currently i fish with a 9' noodle rod and 6 lb test. the noodle will flex all the way to the handle, look at my avatar. i land fish way faster than a guy with a beefy spin rod as the big bend in the rod tires the fish quicker and allows me to direct the fish away from the line of guys which allows everyone else to cast again while i deal with the fish away from them. one of the guys who is always where i fish uses an ultralight and 4lb test. we all have to wait ten minutes while he lands his fish. the noodle also allows for much lighter line as the rod is very forgiving on runs and leaps, which the real early season fish often do.
the biggest fish generally run up the river before most guys even start to fish for them. some of those are downrunners and actually return to the ocean. those numbers are way down. in the old times 7-9 lb shad were pretty common. big ones now are 5 lbs. between the commercial guys hitting them hard and the general overall fishing world we live in these days the run is always somewhat threatened.

 

[Bamboozle]

What are you fishing, darts, flutter spoons, something else...?

It's funny, when I first stared spin fishing for shad, I would buy darts & spoons from some local guys at the various spring firehouse fishing shows in my neck of the woods.

Then one day while fishing the Delaware on the Jersey side near Shawnee, I found a Plano Box absolutely jam packed with darts & spoons and I never needed to buy another for the rest of my shad days and won't if I start shad fishing again.

That was also the reason I never got too upset if I lost a few on snags. 😉

 

[lars]

i generally fish a two dart rig. a 1/4 oz with an 1/8 oz about 16"-24" below. i generally don't lose too many but definitely donate from time to time. i don't fish spoons as the fish seem to take them deeper and many bleed. i usually buy a couple dozen 1/8 oz ers and dozen 1/4's for the season.

last year i spent way too much time messing with the shad and by the time i went trout fishing the hatches had pretty much happened in the Poconos. everything seemed early last year. perhaps this cold will put things back on schedule. it will definitely impact the shad bite as they get less aggressive in lower water temps.

 

[Tfhough]

You may have better luck driving south to Havre de Grace and the Conowingo dam on the lower Susquehanna. Hickory Shad are smaller cousins to the American Shad, but are easily caught from the shores and although the spin guys are everywhere, there's usually enough room for a fly angler in the many public access parks along the lower river. The fish seem to spread out as they approach below the dam area. Deep wading and booming casts are not necessary, just swing darts or small clousers across and down like a wet fly then jig them a bit. Again, these are smaller shad, but when they are on, everyone is catching.

 

[lars]

yes, it's loaded with hickories down there. there's also the striper bycatch. they're in there eating the hickories.