2024 Shad stuff
- Thread starter Evan B
- Start date
Hmmm, 2022 I was fishing the Snoqualmie for cutts below High Bridge and saw schools of small fish tightly clustered, roving around dimpling the surface really markedly in about a 6-10’ diameter circular area. I ran many a size 10 or 12 spider through them but didn’t hook anything doing that. I didn’t switch up until I did hook one like you did though, that’s is pretty legend. Anyway I wonder if I was seeing juvenile shad. It was very unusual, nothing I’ve ever seen.
Weird, should be prime time. What was the water level like?
Creatch’r
Potential Spam
That sounds spot on to me. It was all very unlike anything I’d seen before so I was pretty fascinated and they did just do circles in one small area of a much larger bay. We kept fishing our way around the bay several times and each time we came back to the corner the shimmering dimpling school was at it again. We ended up anchoring on them determined to see what they were. I even fished a big white bull trout streamer on the edges hoping to hook a lurking predator but never got any love.
I’m sorry, I’m dense. Is it more likely there are already existing runs on the aforementioned Western WA rivers and these were outmigrating shad “smolts,” or that these were juveniles that reared in another (down south) system and were just incidentally present in these rivers?
Rob Allen
Life of the Party
I don't really know seemed like it might have been high but with the Columbia it's hard to tell. We spent an hour there say maybe 5 caught and hooked one myself.
It is becoming clear that in the case of shad potentially adapting to one or more Puget sound river system that there are a lot of unanswered questions. With a changing environment if and how shad might adapt to these conditions is largely unknown. That said I would think it is much more likely those juvenile shad seen in the Snohomish system were produced there. If so, the question of whether they have they established a viable/consistent population remains unanswered though.
With the increasing limited summer fisheries in the Snohomish basin answering the above question is unlikely to be by incidental summer catches but rather by such methods as eDNA or observations in any of the various juvenile salmon sampling.
Curt
What kinda holding water were you finding those Cedar shad in? I checked out a couple deeper, slower pools but didn’t encounter any. Possible I just wasn’t deep enough since I only had a floating line.
Thanks, kicking myself for leaving my sink 5 full intermediate spool behind. From my small amount of experience shadding on the Willamette, I shoulda known better.
Probably won’t have time to give it another shot til next June - the way this run is blowing up maybe it’ll be easier then anyway!
surf12foot
Smolt
Thought this might be a little helpful. So, for southern Oregon the shad run starts around Mother's day and goes through Father's day (prime time) and a couple of weeks after. The baby shad remains in the rivers till late summer/fall all the while moving down the system. By late fall they are in the estuary/salt. By now they will be anywhere from 1 1/2" to 4 1/2" and look just like an adult shad. 1st major winter storm and they head for the open ocean before winter sets in. Some of them will stay in the estuary up to a year before entering the ocean.
Made it down to the Columbia River this past Friday afternoon to check out the state of the shad run. Saw one of the river cruise boats motor by:
The water was very low and clear (64 degrees), and surprisingly there was only a little wind (most days down there the wind can be brutal). The calm water and low and clear conditions may have moved the shad out to deeper water, but the run also seems to be below normal, based on this chart of shad passing over McNary Dam (which is upstream of where I was fishing):
I only hooked one fish in the first 3.5 hours of fishing, but after the sun set, the shad finally started biting, and I landed 8 shad and lost a couple. Also foul-hooked 3 suckers in the 16 to 24 inch range, which at least proved I was getting my fly near the bottom.
On Saturday morning I woke to a nice sunrise and calm wind conditions; I like to start fishing near dawn or shortly therafter:
Fishing on Saturday morning seemed a bit better, landing 9 shad and losing 5 others in about 4.5 hours of fishing. Also landed a 12" salmon smolt, probably a Chinook smolt. All the fish were released, although I admit wondering if I should have been killing the suckers (do suckers eat salmon and steelhead smolts?).
I was using a 15' Type 8 sinktip on my RIO Versitip line with a 4' leader down to a 2X RIO Fluoroflex Plus tippet. A full sinking line (Type 5 to Type 7 would do fine) if you don't have a sinktip line.
I think any small, flashy fly will catch shad; I was using my T-Krill patterns, which are very easy and quick to tie:
I don't think the color matters that much to the shad (I've hooked shad on almost any color; I wonder if shad even see in color?), but the size definitely matters. The shad aren't feeding, so I think they hit a fly out of territorial aggression. If the fly size is too large, the fish will shy away from it, and if it is too small, they will ignore it. My shad flies are about three-quarters of an inch long. I think the black tungsten beadhead helps in both getting the fly to sink quickly, but also to sort of imitate the eyes of a krill.
My technique is to cast upstream about 20 to 30 degrees, let the fly sink about 8 to 10 seconds, and then retrieve the fly across the current (perpendicular to the current), hopefully within a foot of the bottom. The traditional wet fly swing also works, but I think not as effectively. If you like to fish indicators, I believe an indicator setup would also work fine, but with the usual winds, it might be kind of hard to cast an indicator setup.
When the shad are plentiful and close to shore and when you see a good number rolling occasionally, I find I can get away with using my clear intermediate line and don't need to get near the bottom, but that doesn't happen very often (and did not on this outing). As others have written, shad fishing can be boom or bust; I've had 50 fish days and also been skunked, so you just never know what you'll find. But I guarantee that you won't catch any sitting in front of your TV or computer.
I felt that this outing was tougher than I was expecting.
Very rarely, I'll hook a sockeye salmon incidentally to fishing for shad, but none were hooked on this outing. You'll definitely know when you've hooked a sockeye, as they fight much better than a shad. I've also hooked smallmouth bass, carp, Northern Pikeminnows and suckers.
With the river current and shape of the shad, you get a decent fight out of most of the shad on light gear. I find a 5 weight rod works best as it is a good balance between being a good rod for fighting the fish, and also being able to cast in high wind conditions. In really ferocious winds, I may overweight the rod with a 7 weight line to punch through the wind.
Rex
The water was very low and clear (64 degrees), and surprisingly there was only a little wind (most days down there the wind can be brutal). The calm water and low and clear conditions may have moved the shad out to deeper water, but the run also seems to be below normal, based on this chart of shad passing over McNary Dam (which is upstream of where I was fishing):
I only hooked one fish in the first 3.5 hours of fishing, but after the sun set, the shad finally started biting, and I landed 8 shad and lost a couple. Also foul-hooked 3 suckers in the 16 to 24 inch range, which at least proved I was getting my fly near the bottom.
On Saturday morning I woke to a nice sunrise and calm wind conditions; I like to start fishing near dawn or shortly therafter:
Fishing on Saturday morning seemed a bit better, landing 9 shad and losing 5 others in about 4.5 hours of fishing. Also landed a 12" salmon smolt, probably a Chinook smolt. All the fish were released, although I admit wondering if I should have been killing the suckers (do suckers eat salmon and steelhead smolts?).
I was using a 15' Type 8 sinktip on my RIO Versitip line with a 4' leader down to a 2X RIO Fluoroflex Plus tippet. A full sinking line (Type 5 to Type 7 would do fine) if you don't have a sinktip line.
I think any small, flashy fly will catch shad; I was using my T-Krill patterns, which are very easy and quick to tie:
I don't think the color matters that much to the shad (I've hooked shad on almost any color; I wonder if shad even see in color?), but the size definitely matters. The shad aren't feeding, so I think they hit a fly out of territorial aggression. If the fly size is too large, the fish will shy away from it, and if it is too small, they will ignore it. My shad flies are about three-quarters of an inch long. I think the black tungsten beadhead helps in both getting the fly to sink quickly, but also to sort of imitate the eyes of a krill.
My technique is to cast upstream about 20 to 30 degrees, let the fly sink about 8 to 10 seconds, and then retrieve the fly across the current (perpendicular to the current), hopefully within a foot of the bottom. The traditional wet fly swing also works, but I think not as effectively. If you like to fish indicators, I believe an indicator setup would also work fine, but with the usual winds, it might be kind of hard to cast an indicator setup.
When the shad are plentiful and close to shore and when you see a good number rolling occasionally, I find I can get away with using my clear intermediate line and don't need to get near the bottom, but that doesn't happen very often (and did not on this outing). As others have written, shad fishing can be boom or bust; I've had 50 fish days and also been skunked, so you just never know what you'll find. But I guarantee that you won't catch any sitting in front of your TV or computer.
I felt that this outing was tougher than I was expecting.Very rarely, I'll hook a sockeye salmon incidentally to fishing for shad, but none were hooked on this outing. You'll definitely know when you've hooked a sockeye, as they fight much better than a shad. I've also hooked smallmouth bass, carp, Northern Pikeminnows and suckers.
With the river current and shape of the shad, you get a decent fight out of most of the shad on light gear. I find a 5 weight rod works best as it is a good balance between being a good rod for fighting the fish, and also being able to cast in high wind conditions. In really ferocious winds, I may overweight the rod with a 7 weight line to punch through the wind.
Rex
No need to bonk suckers. They're a native fish and not exactly predatory. Pikeminnow are the ones they want to keep under control and have a bounty program for.Made it down to the Columbia River this past Friday afternoon to check out the state of the shad run. Saw one of the river cruise boats motor by:
View attachment 120139
The water was very low and clear (64 degrees), and surprisingly there was only a little wind (most days down there the wind can be brutal). The calm water and low and clear conditions may have moved the shad out to deeper water, but the run also seems to be below normal, based on this chart of shad passing over McNary Dam (which is upstream of where I was fishing):
View attachment 120140
I only hooked one fish in the first 3.5 hours of fishing, but after the sun set, the shad finally started biting, and I landed 8 shad and lost a couple. Also foul-hooked 3 suckers in the 16 to 24 inch range, which at least proved I was getting my fly near the bottom.
On Saturday morning I woke to a nice sunrise and calm wind conditions; I like to start fishing near dawn or shortly therafter:
View attachment 120141
Fishing on Saturday morning seemed a bit better, landing 9 shad and losing 5 others in about 4.5 hours of fishing. Also landed a 12" salmon smolt, probably a Chinook smolt. All the fish were released, although I admit wondering if I should have been killing the suckers (do suckers eat salmon and steelhead smolts?).
I was using a 15' Type 8 sinktip on my RIO Versitip line with a 4' leader down to a 2X RIO Fluoroflex Plus tippet. A full sinking line (Type 5 to Type 7 would do fine) if you don't have a sinktip line.
I think any small, flashy fly will catch shad; I was using my T-Krill patterns, which are very easy and quick to tie:
View attachment 120142
I don't think the color matters that much to the shad (I've hooked shad on almost any color; I wonder if shad even see in color?), but the size definitely matters. The shad aren't feeding, so I think they hit a fly out of territorial aggression. If the fly size is too large, the fish will shy away from it, and if it is too small, they will ignore it. My shad flies are about three-quarters of an inch long. I think the black tungsten beadhead helps in both getting the fly to sink quickly, but also to sort of imitate the eyes of a krill.
My technique is to cast upstream about 20 to 30 degrees, let the fly sink about 8 to 10 seconds, and then retrieve the fly across the current (perpendicular to the current), hopefully within a foot of the bottom. The traditional wet fly swing also works, but I think not as effectively. If you like to fish indicators, I believe an indicator setup would also work fine, but with the usual winds, it might be kind of hard to cast an indicator setup.
When the shad are plentiful and close to shore and when you see a good number rolling occasionally, I find I can get away with using my clear intermediate line and don't need to get near the bottom, but that doesn't happen very often (and did not on this outing). As others have written, shad fishing can be boom or bust; I've had 50 fish days and also been skunked, so you just never know what you'll find. But I guarantee that you won't catch any sitting in front of your TV or computer.
Very rarely, I'll hook a sockeye salmon incidentally to fishing for shad, but none were hooked on this outing. You'll definitely know when you've hooked a sockeye, as they fight much better than a shad. I've also hooked smallmouth bass, carp, Northern Pikeminnows and suckers.
With the river current and shape of the shad, you get a decent fight out of most of the shad on light gear. I find a 5 weight rod works best as it is a good balance between being a good rod for fighting the fish, and also being able to cast in high wind conditions. In really ferocious winds, I may overweight the rod with a 7 weight line to punch through the wind.
Rex
Nice work Rex! That must have been you in the Subaru? My buddy and I were the ones in the gray F150 and canopy.Made it down to the Columbia River this past Friday afternoon to check out the state of the shad run. Saw one of the river cruise boats motor by:
View attachment 120139
The water was very low and clear (64 degrees), and surprisingly there was only a little wind (most days down there the wind can be brutal). The calm water and low and clear conditions may have moved the shad out to deeper water, but the run also seems to be below normal, based on this chart of shad passing over McNary Dam (which is upstream of where I was fishing):
View attachment 120140
I only hooked one fish in the first 3.5 hours of fishing, but after the sun set, the shad finally started biting, and I landed 8 shad and lost a couple. Also foul-hooked 3 suckers in the 16 to 24 inch range, which at least proved I was getting my fly near the bottom.
On Saturday morning I woke to a nice sunrise and calm wind conditions; I like to start fishing near dawn or shortly therafter:
View attachment 120141
Fishing on Saturday morning seemed a bit better, landing 9 shad and losing 5 others in about 4.5 hours of fishing. Also landed a 12" salmon smolt, probably a Chinook smolt. All the fish were released, although I admit wondering if I should have been killing the suckers (do suckers eat salmon and steelhead smolts?).
I was using a 15' Type 8 sinktip on my RIO Versitip line with a 4' leader down to a 2X RIO Fluoroflex Plus tippet. A full sinking line (Type 5 to Type 7 would do fine) if you don't have a sinktip line.
I think any small, flashy fly will catch shad; I was using my T-Krill patterns, which are very easy and quick to tie:
View attachment 120142
I don't think the color matters that much to the shad (I've hooked shad on almost any color; I wonder if shad even see in color?), but the size definitely matters. The shad aren't feeding, so I think they hit a fly out of territorial aggression. If the fly size is too large, the fish will shy away from it, and if it is too small, they will ignore it. My shad flies are about three-quarters of an inch long. I think the black tungsten beadhead helps in both getting the fly to sink quickly, but also to sort of imitate the eyes of a krill.
My technique is to cast upstream about 20 to 30 degrees, let the fly sink about 8 to 10 seconds, and then retrieve the fly across the current (perpendicular to the current), hopefully within a foot of the bottom. The traditional wet fly swing also works, but I think not as effectively. If you like to fish indicators, I believe an indicator setup would also work fine, but with the usual winds, it might be kind of hard to cast an indicator setup.
When the shad are plentiful and close to shore and when you see a good number rolling occasionally, I find I can get away with using my clear intermediate line and don't need to get near the bottom, but that doesn't happen very often (and did not on this outing). As others have written, shad fishing can be boom or bust; I've had 50 fish days and also been skunked, so you just never know what you'll find. But I guarantee that you won't catch any sitting in front of your TV or computer.
Very rarely, I'll hook a sockeye salmon incidentally to fishing for shad, but none were hooked on this outing. You'll definitely know when you've hooked a sockeye, as they fight much better than a shad. I've also hooked smallmouth bass, carp, Northern Pikeminnows and suckers.
With the river current and shape of the shad, you get a decent fight out of most of the shad on light gear. I find a 5 weight rod works best as it is a good balance between being a good rod for fighting the fish, and also being able to cast in high wind conditions. In really ferocious winds, I may overweight the rod with a 7 weight line to punch through the wind.
Rex
We got skunked! We were there Friday evening and then stayed up too late, catching up on life, so were not motivated enough to get up early Saturday morning. That was probably our best shot. Oh well. First time getting skunked by shad for me. So we went carpin and got my buddy hooked up for the first time so that was fun.
Great looking flies. I have some that are very similar, but I like yours better with the black bead. I tried pretty much every color in my box and nada, zilch, zippo. Weird year for sure.
Yes, that was me in the silver Outback Wilderness. As I wrote earlier, I found the shad fishing was really tough for most of Friday late afternoon/evening until after sunset and before dusk, when the fish became active for a short period. Early Saturday morning was better, but I usually find that the fish go off the bite around 9 a.m. so I quit shortly after that time. Maybe they don't go off the bite, but just go out farther and deeper as the sunlight hits the water? It seemed to me that the shad were really hugging the bottom on this outing, more so than usual (maybe due to the very low and clear water), so I found that I needed to be ticking the rocks now and then (and getting snagged up every so often) to find the shad (and suckers). After a few casts, varying the depth slightly on every cast, I step downstream a couple of steps and repeat. When the shad are sparse, it seems I need to find that larger rock they are hiding behind. When I hook a shad, I stay exactly in that one spot for a longer time, as it is likely that I'll hook other shad that hide behind that same rock. I also vary the length of line I'm casting out, as I'm trying to find that lane that the shad are traveling in, which sometimes can be very narrow, maybe only a few feet wide. To me, it seems shad travel in the river much like steelhead or salmon, in the current seam or just outside the current seam, so I'm trying to get my fly to swim in that zone. I'm trying to retrieve the fly right across their face. You'd think I'd snag a shad doing that, but I very rarely foul-hook a shad using that technique. I think the fly just bounces off the shad's big scales.
Glad you like my T-Krill fly patterns. I use the same flies when fishing for pink salmon (and contrary to popular belief, the flies don't have to be pink in color to catch pink salmon). They are very simple fly patterns, and very quick and easy to tie. When I looked at photos of krill, the distinguishing feature seemed to be the big black eyes, so that's what I'm trying to imitate. I find a black beadhead works just fine and is a lot easier and quicker to tie in than other bead eyes; I don't think the fish can tell the difference. I use 3.3 mm to 3.8 mm black tungsten beads. For the shad and pink salmon fishing, I like to use the Gamakatsu SC15 saltwater, wide gap, tin plated hooks in size 4, stock no. 82508. Any flashy dubbing will work; I like to use the UV Ice dubbing, as I think the UV feature makes the fly easier for the fish to see in low light conditions.
As I wrote earlier, I don't think the shad see colors, so the specific color isn't that critical. I've used white, pink, red, cerise, chartreuse, orange, black and purple and it doesn't seem to make much difference. Getting the depth, location and retrieve right is way more important than fly selection. If I'm going to change up flies, I'll choose fly size over color, as it does seem to me that the shad are sensitive to the size of the fly.
What's the verdict on 2024 shad? Shadtastic? shadpocalypse? Shadda been here in 2023? I get the vibe the big story of 2024 is spread, shadvancing into new territory....
Shad but true. Wishing I had some of @Evan B's Shad-Chunks™, shadly I don't.