Jeff’s 2025 AR Shad Reports

[Jeff C.]

I forgot to mention that we ran into Charlie Gonzales fishing his hole in a kayak. We exchanged flies and he told us that he just had an issue. It was something about a trolling motor, fly line and rod tip. I think we have all been there!

[Jeff C.]

Floated with Earle and there were 4 boats ahead of us. Dawsen and a group float consisting of Joe, Andrew and Tyler. There a lot of bankies today. We got double digits to the boat doing a lot of work with Earle catching most of them. As usual Earle’s boat is a raft magnet and we had a couple rafted tied together run into us. Earle had to pull his anchor because they ended being stuck on both sides of our stern.

[Jeff C.]

Floated with Earle and there were 4 boats ahead of us. Dawsen and a group float consisting of Joe, Andrew and Tyler. There a lot of bankies today. We got double digits to the boat doing a lot of work with Earle catching most of them. As usual Earle’s boat is a raft magnet and we had a couple of rafts tied together run into us. Earle had to pull his anchor because they ended being stuck on both sides of our stern.

[Jeff C.]

Solo float today. It has been getting slower. Only one other drift boat, Toby with clients, but a lot of bankies. Got into double digits but it was all over the place. Erik B was launching when I was taking out. Boy, his Wooldridge is a big boat!

[Charlie Gonzales]

Good to see you guys Jeff! Hopefully I will get out to actually fish before the season is over. This last trip was just to test the new anchor set-up and then I made the rookie mistake costing me a rod tip.

[Pvillarr]

Solo float today. It has been getting slower. Only one other drift boat, Toby with clients, but a lot of bankies. Got into double digits but it was all over the place. Erik B was launching when I was taking out. Boy, his Wooldridge is a big boat!

Hey Jeff, are the fish spawned out now? It’s crazy to think how short shad season has become from years prior.

[RoosterHunter]

Glad to see you're getting out there Charlie. You still at the academy?

[firebirdteacher]

Try regular nymphs like a copper John and you will find out; on a separate note, has anyone noticed that USGS flows have not been updated since 6/3/25?

[Jeff C.]

Yes, a lot of the shad I’ve been landing are spawned out and skinny. Maybe there will be a push of fresh fish but I’m not holding my breath. Shad are not grabby during the day like it’s the end of the run. You can still get them in the last hours of light.

Solo float today and got 9 in 5 hours of fishing. One other boat, Jefe with clients. Saw them land one as they drifted by me.

[Bigg A]

There's fat fresh fish down low but not getting into any serious numbers. This run is looking worse than last year