Jeff’s 2022 AR Shad Reports

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Does someone shuttle you Jeff?

[Jeff C.]

Paul Thick or Skeeter shuttle me.

[Jeff C.]

Fished down low this morning and got one in my 'go to' run. Walked upriver and ran into Cookie and Jeff Morin and his son Wil. Walked out to the drop off and hooked 5 in a row, landing 3. Fished the upper river this afternoon and got 3 until a cormorant went through the whole run and shut the bite off.

[Jeff C.]

Solo float today in the mini and had the best day so far this run. Got well into double digits swinging Earle’s new fly the Holo Ronald. Joe Vasquez and his clients were swinging above me wading and Jared Shakin was nymphing with his clients. Things are looking up!

[Jeff C.]

Waded the run I fished in my boat yesterday because I was getting work done on my trailer. Dropped it off at 7:30 and it was done by lunch time. If you need trailer work go see Josh at Ace Trailer in Gold Run. I ended up with 8 swinging Andy’s Perdigon, the JC Perdigon and the Holo Ronald. Joe Vasquez had Tanner and his grandfather in his boat and both of them were hooking up nymphing.

[Jeff C.]

Floated with Earle today and was surprised to see the fleet in front of us, three drift boats on a Kiene’s shop group float (Joe Vasquez, Jared Shakin and Garrett Smith on the sticks). We anchored off to the side so we wouldn’t affect their drifts. Everyone was hooking up (us swinging and the fleet nymphing). I thought it was going to be an epic day but a power drifter motored through the run and shut the bite down. We tried to stick it out but ended up moving to another run where we did ok ending up in double digits.

[Jeff C.]

Floated again with Earle. There were a couple of other drift boats and 3 spin bankies, one of them was Don who I know. The spin guys were in the spot and were getting into them. We fished below them and they left after working the run until it slowed down. We ended up in double digits but it wasn’t as good as yesterday. As we were leaving a couple of big jet sleds showed up.

[Jeff C.]

Did a solo float this morning and it was slow. I only got a couple. Smitty was wading and he got a few swinging. Joe got his clients several nymphing. Greg came by in his power drifter and told me that was a good sized pod in run a little further down river. I went down there but couldn’t find any. The increase in flow tomorrow should bring more fish up river.

[Finsane]

“On the sticks”. It been a spell since I’ve used or heard that phrase

Put a grin on my face. Thanks

[Jeff C.]

Floated again today and only landed one that got hooked when my line was dangling as I was eating lunch. The rod holder out fished again! Had several grabs that didn’t stick. The increase in flow has caused fish to move up and scatter. Only two other fly anglers, a handful of bankie bobber guys and one raft fishing during the day. I did see some in the flat above the run that I’ve been fishing. The water looks a lot better with the bump in flow. If we get another 1000 cfs increase a lot of other areas will be swingable.