Jeff’s 2022 AR Shad Reports

[Jeff C.]

I use two flies about half of the time. It depends usually on the type of line I’m throwing.

[Jeff C.]

Fished this morning getting on the water at sunrise. There was no sea lion in the hole but it was like there was one. I didn’t get a single grab or bump for 3 hours. During the 4th hour I ran into a small pod moving up and got 10+. Then it slowed down again and I got 4 in the next 2 hours. All were caught with the Pink Lipstick except for the last 4 on Andy’s Perdigon. There were 2 gear anglers and 4 other fly fishermen (including Jefe and Cookie) during the course of the morning. I only saw one fish landed between them!

[Finsane]

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.

Years back I did the same thing as far as the half pounders go, didn’t get any, but hot into double digits on the shad. I want to say it was prince under indicators, mid day. Fun on a 5 wt. haven’t thought of that trip in a spell. Used that technique quite a few times that season. (I’m about 5 houses down from Earle)

[Jeff C.]

Earle said Hi

[Jeff C.]

Floated the upper river with Earle and we didn’t get anything yesterday. Talked to a guy in a big jet boat who said he launched at Howe and went down to the Log Hole and there were 25 anglers on each side.

Earle and I floated mid-river today and Earle got a big hen on a Bloody Maria. Steve in his Metalhead pram got a couple.

[tcorfey]

I fished Gristmill and Paradise Beach on Saturday for Nada, however, spotted a couple in the current at Gristmill and the bobber crowd across the river at from the beach at Paradise caught a few. Very slow for the bobber crowd maybe 1-2 per hour with 6-8 anglers fishing the whole bank. Had 2 other fly fishers come into Paradise did not see any caught by them.

[Troutsource]

I fished mid-river Saturday from 8:30AM to 11:30AM and landed about 6 or 7, LDR'd a dozen. Caught most of them high stick nymphing with a mono rig. Caught them on about 4 different tungsten beadhead flies: Blow Torch (size 10/12), Frenchie (10/12), a pink & white Perdigon I made up (16), and another fly I made up (which was the most productive, size 10) - basically the same color scheme as the original black and red wooly worms (red marabou tail/tag, black body, pearl braid ribbing, grizzly-looking hackle collar and UV Pink Ice Dub head. Beadhead is copper, and fly was size 10. I fell asleep early Friday night and failed to tie Jeff's shad flies. Who knows, I could have done better had I done so.

I met three guys using spey rods in the same location who got skunked. The fish moved from one section to a somewhat deeper and slightly downstream section of the 25-yard run I fished. I was using my 11' 3 wt Euro rod with fine tippet, so fighting them was a challenge and contributed to the LDR number.

[Jeff C.]

Got down to the river at 6 am and there were 5 bobber guys already fishing. By 7 am there were 11 bobber guys. Met Bob from Davis who fished the hole and went up river. I left at 7:30 and no one had caught anything. Went to another spot further upriver and hooked one on a Victoria Secret but it broke me off. I knew I shouldn’t have used 12 lb flouro and stuck with Maxima Ultragreen. A bobber guy showed up and fished above me and caught a big hen. I left because I got tired of waiting for him to finish his 100 yd drifts so I wouldn’t cast over his line. Hope more shad come in because there has been no big schools seen anywhere.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

If there is nothing coming out of the American river the Shad might just keep going up the Sacramento river.

Then some might go up the Feather river, but most will go up the Sacramento river to spawn above Colusa.

[Ephemera]

Looking over last years reports in this forum, fishing was red hot this time of year, and the flows were similar. This is the third year in a row of low flows, it might be taking its toll.

https://www.dreamflows.com/graphs/yir.076.php

Water temperature today on the AR at Folsom is 60.8 degrees compared to an average of 65.8 in May. Keeping my fingers crossed that that is responsible for the Shad's reluctance to enter the American.

https://seatemperature.info/american...mperature.html