Jeff's 2016 AR Shad Reports

[Jeff C.]

Caught the first shad of the year yesterday afternoon. Been trying for the past few weeks with nothing caught except for SH smolts and small stripers. I was lucky to find a small pod and got a half dozen before they moved. They are not in thick yet but should be in a couple of weeks. As Bruce just said "Let the games begin!"

[SeanO]

Congrats!

What was your fly color?

[Jeff C.]

Fished a two fly set-up and the Bloody Maria was the only fly they hit.

[Mr.Matt]

First Blood!
Congrats!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Get your gear in your vehicle so you can go after work during the week.

Weekends are for the out of town crowd.

[SeanO]

Bloody Maria

Thanks, Jeff!

That is what I figured!!

[Sheepdog8404]

Looking forward to finding out what this shad game is all about! Thanks for the report, Jeff. What exactly is the Bloody Mary supposed to imitate that makes the shad love em?

[Jeff C.]

It was made up from a mash up of a bunch of different flies with no specific bug in mind. It turned out that it has the shape of mysis shrimp which shad eat in the Delta. Btw, got 6 in 2.5 hours this evening. They are not in thick yet!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the 50 years I have fished for Shad the flies have gotten smaller every decade or so.

This is due to the numbers of Shad that are coming into the rivers today.

In the 1970s we had Shad line ups on the American River that were 30 people long.

That is how big and long the schools were. Everyone caught fish every day back then.

Today's Shad fishing is kind of like really good Steelheading for small to medium size fish.



In the 1960sd and 1970s we use #2s and #4s depending on the water clarity.

In the 1980s and 1990s we fished #6s and #8s.

After 2000 we fished #6s through #10s


I would say the flies today are probably mostly #10s tied very sparce.

We would still use larger ( #4 - #6?) flies up on the Sacramento River for Shad today because that water is not as clear as the American or Yuba Rivers.


In the old days we used heavy 9' #9 line 2 piece fiberglass fly rods with 300 grain sinking shooting heads.


Today you can go out there with a trout outfit if you want to.



Today Switch rods and light Spey rods dominate the Shad world.

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[Scott V]

Jeff, I wound up catching a striper on the Bloody Maria the other night when I saw you. No shad for me yet.