Jeff’s 2022 AR Shad Reports

[Ed Wahl]

Shad fishing has always been a rather "social" sport. The best holes are well known and therefore get a lot of anglers. It's something you just have to steel yourself to deal with. Most of the time it's a blast.

You can find solitude and tons of fish by doing it like Jeff, but bear in mind Jeff puts in the time and effort to find these spots. You would have to do the same to see what he sees.

Fishing in a line up can be fun, don't knock it until you've tried it.

There's a bit of etiquette in a line up but it's easily learned.

I fished River Bend back in the day, it was a blast. Even when the Fly Clubs showed up. Don't know what happened to that spot but last year I fished it and I was the only one there, and caught nothing.
If anyone's done well there lately let me know, I'll happily hit that spot again.
Ed

[Mr T]

Shad fishing has always been a rather "social" sport. The best holes are well known and therefore get a lot of anglers. It's something you just have to steel yourself to deal with. Most of the time it's a blast.

You can find solitude and tons of fish by doing it like Jeff, but bear in mind Jeff puts in the time and effort to find these spots. You would have to do the same to see what he sees.

Fishing in a line up can be fun, don't knock it until you've tried it.

There's a bit of etiquette in a line up but it's easily learned.

I fished River Bend back in the day, it was a blast. Even when the Fly Clubs showed up. Don't know what happened to that spot but last year I fished it and I was the only one there, and caught nothing.
If anyone's done well there lately let me know, I'll happily hit that spot again.
Ed

This.

I used to to do the same for salmon when you could fish Nimbus basin. Yes, it gets busy, but if your catching and having a good time, its cool IMO. If you want solitude, then yeah this isn't that!

[Jeff C.]

Got down to the river at sunrise this morning and Chops was already fishing. It was dead slow with no grabs or bumps for 2 1/2 hours. It didn’t help to have a big sea lion run around the hole for about 30 minutes followed by couple of cormorants. Chops left and then I got my first fish. I ended up landing 5 (3 on the Victoria Secret and 2 on the Pink Lipstick) and LDRed about the same. There was one other fly guy and a bobber guy fishing and the bobber guy got a couple. As I was leaving I ran into Erika and Mary Ellen and I gave them some flies and pointed them to the hole. I hope they caught some.

[Pvillarr]

That reminds me of last year when a striper moved in a hole and killed the bite…..

Got down to the river at sunrise this morning and Chops was already fishing. It was dead slow with no grabs or bumps for 2 1/2 hours. It didn’t help to have a big sea lion run around the hole for about 30 minutes followed by couple of cormorants. Chops left and then I got my first fish. I ended up landing 5 (3 on the Victoria Secret and 2 on the Pink Lipstick) and LDRed about the same. There was one other fly guy and a bobber guy fishing and the bobber guy got a couple. As I was leaving I ran into Erika and Mary Ellen and I gave them some flies and pointed them to the hole. I hope they caught some.

[Jeff C.]

Went snowboarding this morning and rode until mid-day. I should have stayed all day but I drove home and jammed down to the river. When I showed up there was no one around. I excepted a big line up in both sides of the river. Fished for and hour and a half and only caught one small male. Jim and Son and 3 bobber guys showed up so I went home. It’s still early in the run!

[Jeff C.]

Didn’t fish for shad yesterday. Went for a float with Earle Sloan in the upper river for halfpounders. We didn’t get any! Got out early this morning and walked down to the river with Mark Chops Koehn. It was dead with no grabs. Peter Villarreal showed up and fished below us and started to hook them occasionally. Jeff Hefe Morin showed up and fished above us. He didn’t get any until I gave him a Pink Lipstick and he got one. I got into double digits but it took 6 hours so it was a lot of work. Hot fly was the Pink Lipstick but I did get a couple on the Victoria Secret.

[Pvillarr]

I think the real startof the show was the guy with his shirt off in shorts talking to himself at 7am in the morning. I bet he caught all the shad before us lol. Good seeing ya, Jeff!

Didn’t fish for shad yesterday. Went for a float with Earle Sloan in the upper river for halfpounders. We didn’t get any! Got out early this morning and walked down to the river with Mark Chops Koehn. It was dead with no grabs. Peter Villarreal showed up and fished below us and started to hook them occasionally. Jeff Hefe Morin showed up and fished above us. He didn’t get any until I gave him a Pink Lipstick and he got one. I got into double digits but it took 6 hours so it was a lot of work. Hot fly was the Pink Lipstick but I did get a couple on the Victoria Secret.

[Jeff C.]

Fished early this morning with William Leung. He got a couple before going to work. Met a fellow UC Davis retiree named Cookie who is getting into fly fishing. I gave him a Pink Lipstick and he caught a big hen. The bite was inconsistent but I ended up with a dozen. It took 6.5 hours so obviously the bite wasn’t red hot. I caught my biggest hen so far this year. She was 20 inches long and 3-4 lbs!

[Troutsource]

Anyone willing to share a picture of the Lipstick or Victoria's Secret? Thinking of hitting the river Saturday AM but need to tie something up. I've only caught shad once on the A -- by mistake, while fishing tungsten bead Frenchies for blue backs last year. It's so great to have this excitement on a river so close by.

[Jeff C.]

Victoria Secret