My first American Shad
When I was ~15 years old I lived in south Sacramento downstream of the Zoo. I lived right near the Captain's Table which was a marina and restaurant on the Sacramento River.
A few miles down stream from there was the 'Minnow Hole' which was actually a famous fishing spot where the sewage treatment plant poured its waste water into the river.
Back then the level was covered with large slabs of concrete poured to keep the levee from washing away. Later they put rip rap in that area.
There was a big bulkhead there where the water came out. Many fishermen lined up from there down stream to catch Shad, Stripers and Salmon at the right time of the year.
They called it the 'minnow hole' because many old timers used cane poles with wire on the end to hold their live bait out in the current and out of the snags for catching Stripers.
We used shad darts we bought at Payless to catch the Shad. We used light spinning tackle then and it was very exciting fishing. We would wait till someone below us hooked a shad and then we would all start casting again. They would swim through in big schools and then everyone had one on. The best fishermen there where some of our Japanese neighbors so I would always talk with them to get better ideas about fishing for shad.
On a light spinning rod those shad really spun the drag.
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