Been organizing my shad fly boxes for the upcoming run.
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Been organizing my shad fly boxes for the upcoming run.
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Serious arsenal!
Could start any day now?
They usually start getting them at the mouth of the American and Feather rivers first.
Sometimes they get early reports below Sacramento?
Mouth of the American river @ Discovery park.
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How many of those are you sharing with us through Kiene’s? So far I love the Bloody Maria :)
Kiene’s will have Bloody Marias, Firecrackers and Red Lipsticks.
all winners!!!!
50 years ago Joe Shirshac, local fire fighter, tied Shad flies for some of the local sporting goods stores.
He used the Eagle Claw 1197N hook in size #4 and #6 which are huge by today's standards.
It had a little short white calf tail, silver mylar piping body, chartreuse or hot orange chenille collar, white hackle and large chrome
bead chain eyes.
Of coarse back then we all used a 9' #9 line 2 pc fiberglass fly rod, large reel, 20# Micron backing, 100' of mono shooting line and a
30' shooting head for Shad. (and for Stripers, salmon and Steelhead too)
During the drought of the late 1970s Jimmy Potter tied a very small fly for fishing the Lower Yuba river for Shad.
It was on a #8 or 10 Mustad 3908C hook with small chrome bead chain eyes, red floss body with fine flat silver rib.
It would be very similar to the stand small flies used for Shad today.
Do those flies ride hook point up with the single bead? Does it matter?
They ride hook down but occasionally will ride hook up. It doesn’t matter!
They are on their way, there have been a few stuck on the Sac recently.
Some Shad history:
In the 1970s our local fly fishing club, the Californian Fly fishermen Unlimited, always had an annual Shad outing at Goethe Park (River
Bend Park today). It was probably in June when the run was in full swing.
Some of the members where in charge of getting and smoking some Shad for the outing every year.
One year I was working in West Sacramento for Harry Boley at West Capitol Rod & Gun, "the Bait Shop".
Harry went out at night in a boat with a light and netted some Shad in the outboard prop wash for the club's outing.
He then took them to a place down the river, maybe Freeport, where they smoked your Shad, traded you 2 fresh for 1 smoked.
Back then the biggest, most popular run on the river was "Upper Goethe Park". People came from all over to fish there.
It was 90% fly anglers, many from the Bay area on the weekends. There would be 50 to 100 anglers lined up.
My brother Dick and I had been catching Shad for years at the "Minnow Hole" on the Sacramento river with spinning gear.
Someone at a tackle shop/sporing goods store told us about the American river and we would fly fish there because it had snags?
I went into Sports Unlimited on Arden way and bought a complete fly fishing outfit for Shad, Steelhead, salmon and Stripers.
I went to Goethe Park on a Saturday, what an experience. We knew where it was because we rode our dirt bikes there.
You had to stand back and wait for a spot to open up so you could get in. Everyone was casting a "mile" with shooting heads.
I had been fly fishing for bass and panfish so we had some idea but it was really different with a big 9 foot 9 weight fly rod.
I thrashed away for a while with very little success. A guy who had a small travel trailer up on the bluff came back down from having a
sandwich with his wife. He asked me if I wanted some help? I said Yes, thanks. He took my outfit and cast it all the way across the
water. He said that I had a very good outfit but needed to know how to cast it. He went through a complete drill showing me all his
subtle techniques. Then he turned me loose. It was getting late in the afternoon and lots of Shad where being caught. After an hour of
trying I finally got out about 50 feet one cast and hooked a nice big Shad. That night I hooked a really hot Shad that "greyhounded"
on top down the river. Someone below me shouted" Steelhead" but it was just a very large female Shad. I was hooked from then on.
Looking back on that day I am pretty sure the guy who helped me get started was Andy Puyans from Creative Sports in Pacheco?
And Bill,
YOU have been helping people get started ever since.
Thank you...
...lee s.
Yes Lee.....I bet you have done your share too.
That is why it is just such a fantastic sport.
Bill,
Years ago, (early nineties) I used to pal around with a gentleman from Sacramento named Tom Hayter. He helped shorten the learning curve for me in a big way and introduced me to shad fishing. He used to play with video equipment and one day he showed me a video of you and him at Goethe shad fishing. I believe Tom had a big striper eat a shad he was playing and he had to follow it out of frame. Any chance you remember that? Long time ago. Probably in the eighties...
Tom Hayter was a very good fly fisher from the Greatest Generation.
Like many of these old timers he was very good to me.
He flew the B52 bombers and after retiring from the USAF he became a CPA.
I think his office was near McClellan AFB where he said he had lots of air force memorabilia and photos.
He was also into getting gold out of the cracks in the bedrock of our mountain streams in the winter.
One day he brought in a bag of gold nuggets that weighted about 10 pounds.
He was up near Forrest Hill stream fishing by himself when two scruffy looking guys, on foot, try to rob him.
Tom always carried a piston so he pulled it out and marched them into town, on foot, while he drove his SUV.
He got into float tubing and went wild for it going a lot to Pardee reservoir..
Tom took me and my dad up to Pardee once and we had a great day of float tubing with Tom's help.
I had a copy of that VHS tape / video he took many years ago by Goethe Park / Arden Pond.
He had one of the first video camera with sound and a tripod.
He set it up to show his friend or brother what Shad fishing looked like.
He was playing a Shad and a big Striper must of eaten it.
He finally had to follow it downstream out of the camera range but the sound still worked.
You could hear Tom talking and the reel screaming. Finally it broke off.
Every year during the Shad season we would play that video...lots of fun.
Tom was married to a lovely airline stewardess and they finally moved to her place in Florida for retirement.
That's the guy! Talk about a guy that lived life to the fullest. He never stayed around the house like a lot of retired folks. Fishing, golf, metal detecting, videos, he was into something every day. The two guys up by Foresthill thought they had an easy target until they heard that Ruger Single Six go off. That was my favorite story and there were lots of good ones. Thanks for your response Bill. Brings back a lot of fond memories.
Yes, you could do a movie/documentary about his life story........
Drive by the mouth of the American river near Discovery park to see if there are boats anchored there after Shad?
This morning Bob Simms reported there were some caught near the mouth of the American so they are on their way right on schedule.
Jeff,
Is that a smile I'm detecting on your face? Can't wait either brother.
Randy
I heard that some were trickling in so I fished a couple of lower river spots this morning.
No shad were caught but I did see a sea lion raising havoc.
Always fun to keep any eye on the Shad Cam as the season approaches. Katz
https://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/shadcam/
Very nice video on Shad fishing the lower American river.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4u46VSx5uA
Thanks for the video Bill. I fall in too often to risk fishing without a belt like the guy in the video.
Ron Fong is the angler in the video. He has been wearing that belt pdf for as long as I have known him.
Ron Fong, DDS is Al Fong's brother, manager of the Fisherman's Warehouse on Folsom Blvd in Rancho Cordova, not far from Kiene's.
Ron is good friends with Andy Guibord..........both top anglers and super good human beings.
Nothing yet at Watt avenue in my experience. Hearing about them down river though. Shouldn't be long. Good choke point might be top of Watt/tip of the island
Fished one of my favorite holes down low this morning. I got there at sunrise and fished only a couple of minutes before a pair of sea lions went through the hole a couple of times. I packed it up and went to a couple of spots a little further upriver. Got one small male on a Bloody Maria. I can’t wait for more to show up
Sadly, the sea lions are not following the shelter in place guide lines.
Actually 2. K
I bet everyone’s wondering why I haven’t been providing an updates. The reason is that it has been dead slow for me. Except for the one small male I got on Monday I’ve been blanked every day and I have tried low, mid and up high on the A. There was an initial wave that came in last week and they are very scattered. There’re anglers trying for shad everywhere that I have fished so everyone is chomping at the bit. The main push has not arrived. I won’t worry unless it’s like this in 2 weeks.
I am hanging on every word that comes out of your mouth :) ....................waiting waiting waiting
Motored over a school of small males on Monday. Midriver. Switched over to Stripers and caught 2 small ones and one pikeminnow. It's still coming. Just wait.
While I was out swinging for steelies today, I got lucky to catch my first Shad of the season! I had 2 more hookups but they came off before I could tell what they were. The Shad are on the move up river!
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They are up the Feather in Yuba City. I saw a few people that kept a stringer full and I caught three males within an hour before sunset. Tied up a few new flies and gonna try and gettem again tomorrow. Hope they get to you guys soon!
In the big drought of the late 1970s many would go to the mouth of the Feather river in the Spring to wade on the big sand bar and fly
fish for Shad and Stripers. I remember early in the run catching many small males that did not do much fighting.
When the Sacramento and the Feather rivers are both very low you need to go there to see how cool it can be.
Lots of Stripers where caught at this time and lots of Shad....
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I can think of a half dozen good stories that I have already told that are probably in our archives?
One Spring I had just finished a building a 9' #11 line, 2 piece fly rod on a yellow LamiGlass blank.
It had a full wells grip, fighting butt and fore grip for future Tarpon trips I was dreaming about.
It was a slow action with a softer tip, nothing like an 11 weight of today....more like a softer #9 today.
I had a Pflueger Supreme salt water fly reel on it which was popular in that period in time.
I wanted to try it out so I put 25' lead core head on it and went one even to the mouth of the Feather.
It was Striper time so old Joe Shirshac and I went together and waded out on the big sand bar.
We arrived at sunset because in those days the common belief was that you could not catch Stripers on a fly with the sun up?
Might have been a good size moon because we could see to wade around and fish.
A bunch of Sacramento fly fishers had been there fishing for Shad but left at sunset.
On the far side was a giant mostly sunken log in the water paralleling the bank.
A good size fish busted the surface several time next to the log eating something in the dark.
I waded our near it and cast my black 7 inch eel pattern to the area and soon hooked a good fish.
It was strong and starting jumping like a Steelhead which caught me off guard.
When I got it in and looked at it, it was a very large Smallmouth Bass.
I released it and thought that was pretty wild.....not thinking, but it was probably my person best SMB.
Back during that time in the low flows of Spring we had many eventful days and nights at the mouth of the Feather.