Jeff’s 2023 American River Shad Reports

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Not too long ago Dave Howard was "Mr Shad" on the Lower American River.

For a while he only waded for Shad swinging flies with a Cortland integrated sinking head.

He told me that there was a spot above a holding school of Shad, that if you got it, you were a fish a cast, or he was "a fish a cast."

This was about 30 years ago back before anchored "watercraft" came on the scene on our river.

Dave developed the small size 8/10 "Wet Pinky" that became a very popular Shad fly.

Then he got a drift boat and started guiding on the A for Stripers, Shad and Steelhead.



I think the low water Spring/Summer of 2022 was the beginning of indicator fishing for Shad.

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50 years ago there we almost no spin fishers on the American for Shad, all fly fishers.

We used 9' #9 line 2 pc fiberglass fly rods, a big reel, braided Dacron backing, 100 feet of mono shooting line and a factory 30' head.

Depending on the flow we used a type 2, type 3 or Hi-D sink rate shooting head.

It was all wading with 50 fly fishers in one run.

Back then you could catch Shad all day long.

Anglers were only about 20' apart and you had to wade out as far as the guys on both sides of you or get snagged.

[RoosterHunter]

Yep, I remember those days.

Like the Gold Fields on the Yuba, the Washout on the Sac, One Mile Pond on the Feather.

I remember the old buddy heads fishing the Washout lined up shoulder to shoulder 15 wide. They would catch a shad and the wife would come out and get the fish, clean it and take the roe and pack it on ice. They would sell the roe in a couple of SF markets.

Nowadays I think about doing some shad fishing but my wading abilities are limited, maybe to my knees but if the bottom has no rocks I might try and go thigh-deep.

Damn, I wish I was 40 again and know what I know now. But I have a lot of memories and photos from the past to look back on.

[Jeff C.]

Floated today with Earle. Eric was already anchored in his spot and Andy was with Mark Merrill in the run below. Rod later showed up and anchored next to Eric. They hooked a lot of fish. Earle and I ended up with double digits to the boat but it wasn’t lights out fishing.

[RoosterHunter]

Sounds like the days on the Smith River back in the 70's. If you wanted your spot, you'd better be there by 3am and anchored. Bill Schaadt was there and sleeping in his pram. Rain or shine (dark). I remember fishing the Yuba, by the tower lines. The line up was long and no one left their spot. People would bring out water and food to these guys. Those were the 100 fish days.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Yep, I remember those days.

Like the Gold Fields on the Yuba, the Washout on the Sac, One Mile Pond on the Feather.

I remember the old buddy heads fishing the Washout lined up shoulder to shoulder 15 wide. They would catch a shad and the wife would come out and get the fish, clean it and take the roe and pack it on ice. They would sell the roe in a couple of SF markets.

Nowadays I think about doing some shad fishing but my wading abilities are limited, maybe to my knees but if the bottom has no rocks I might try and go thigh-deep.

Damn, I wish I was 40 again and know what I know now. But I have a lot of memories and photos from the past to look back on.

Those were the good old days for us too.

Naturally, the lower American River was our Shad River, living in Sacramento.

The mouth of the Feather River flowing into the Sacramento River, wading on the sand in low water years was tops for me.

For years many would anchor fish for Shad at the mouth of the Feather River, near Verona.

We did drive all the way north on the Sacramento River to Princeton for Shad.

The lower Feather and lower Yuba Rivers were a little drive too.

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50 years ago I never saw anyone fish Shad from an anchored boat.

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60 years ago we rode our bikes to the "Minnow Hole" on the Sacramento River south of the Sacramento Zoo.

I made one-piece fiberglass spinning rods from Lamiglass blanks from Edwolt's Rod and Reel Repair on Del Paso Blvd in North Sac.

It was the outflow from the sewage treatment plant in South Sacramento.

Shad, Stripers, Salmon and Steelhead were caught there.


Old Timers fished there using a long bamboo pole with some coat hanger on the end to have a notch they cast their line over so

their line, weight, hook and minnow hung straight down just over the "Rip Rack" bottom.

[Jeff C.]

Floated with Earle today and it was dead slow for the first hour. We moved around a lot and finally found a spot where we started hooking fish. We ended up in double digits. C Joe came down rowing Mary Ellen and Ericka and he put them into some fish. The highlight of the day was hooking a hot half-pounder that ran, jumped and spit the hook.

[RoosterHunter]

so, is it worth making a drive to fish the American for a couple days, wading. What is the flow on the American right now. I have a box full of flies that Jeff sent me the photo's. Don't know the name, pink head, chartreuse body and pearl tail

Thanks
Is it required to have a steelhead card, even though I'm not fishing for steelhead.

[Jeff C.]

It’s definitely slowing down. Wading you might get a handful a day but if you can get into a boat double digits are probable.

[cmcdhuibh]

Yes theoretically on the card, though I don’t know if they push it, I haven’t been checked by fish and game for years.
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/river/americanStages.html

[Jeff C.]

I don’t fill out my steelhead card when I fish for shad.

I floated with Earle again today. We got into double digits but Earle caught most of them outfishing me 3:1. They are starting to ball up which is not a good sign (they are staging to exit).