what is the best time of day to shad fish
Photo courtesy of the U.Southward. Geological Survey
Although related to herring, American shad are an splendid game fish that fight like tarpon for anglers on both the East and West coasts.
As with most salmon and steelhead, shad are anadromous, meaning they spend the majority of their lives in the body of water before returning to spawn in the freshwater rivers where they were born.
Shad were transplanted to the Pacific Bounding main from the Due east Coast in the 1870s, with an early population making themselves at home in the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay.
Shad came later to the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington and other river systems in the region.
These days, multiple millions of shad practically clog the fish-counting stations at Bonneville Dam and on upwards the Columbia River to the Snake River confluence and across.
Shad are great fighters for their size and offer the perfect opportunity to introduce kids and family unit to angling.
It'due south not unheard-of to have an 80- or 90-fish day, which will keep kids interested and perhaps skew their view of how easy line-fishing can be for the balance of their lives.
The range of the spawning run goes from Baja California through Littoral Alaska along the West Coast and from Florida to Newfoundland on the Atlantic Coast.
The spawn begins as early as Jan in the southern-nearly range through June and July in northern sections.
American shad are generally silver in color with green and bluish highlights. Their lower jaw fits into the upper and doesn't beetle across the upper jaw.
Almost shad y'all grab will be anywhere from 1-5 pounds, with some larger fish bachelor. Females are oftentimes the larger fish and, unlike typical salmon, shad may survive to spawn again.
Where to Catch American Shad
Shad are known to swim pretty close to shore, oft inside 30-45 anxiety of land, making them accessible to bank anglers, although they are fifty-fifty easier to catch for boaters who tin can park in their migration lanes.
The usual spots to target are beneath rocks, wing jetties, and other cover that gives them a break from the current and narrows the schools equally they go effectually obstacles.
You volition find shad at different depths, depending on the location.
On bigger rivers like the Columbia and Willamette, we've found them between 5 and 20 feet deep, so it can vary depending on conditions including electric current and sunlight.
On smaller waters, similar the Umpqua River in Southern Oregon, they are often much shallower and we've skimmed right over the top of them in a raft in shallow water.
It's all-time to find what depth and locations shad are running and stick with those. If you're line-fishing even a piffling outside the main migration line, you can miss out.
Regular shad anglers will tell you of days where the boat right adjacent to them was catching one shad after another using the same lures and other tackle, and it was a affair of pinpointing the right location.
On the southeastern coast, shad start their run equally early January, with big numbers moving into nearly freshwater rivers such as the St. Johns River in Florida.
The spawn runs through April in the southern states and can last into August in the further reaches of Newfoundland.
At that place are similarities on the Due west Coast equally well. The spawning run starts early in Baja, with more fish entering rivers all upwards the coast every bit the h2o temperatures increment.
Bank and boat anglers can both have fantastic days.
In the Southeast, bringing up to 50 fish a day to the net is common.
West Declension anglers can take equally good, if not better, fishing days on the larger rivers throughout the region.
The Columbia River between Oregon and Washington and the Willamette River in the Portland area and upriver are well known to offer fantastic shad line-fishing opportunities.
The run in these rivers may start earlier and stretch longer into summertime, but typically the runs peak from the 2d half of May through June and into early on July.
If you lot fish them from Female parent'southward Day through the 4th of July, making certain you definitely hit it around Male parent's Solar day, yous should be catching shad in the Pacific Northwest's bigger fisheries.
Along the coast of Florida and Georgia, shad are considered ane of the almost popular winter fish to target.
The fight is spectacular for their size, and when paired with an ultra-light rod and light tackle in lower-current rivers, volition surely print even the nearly cynical angler.
Light action tackle is besides a nifty fashion to approach shad that are running upward the Umpqua River in Southern Oregon, which tin can get started a bit earlier than the bigger rivers farther north.
Unlike the colossal water flows of the Willamette and Columbia, which are going to require heavier tackle to fish, the Umpqua will permit you become away with ultra-light and light tackle setups, which is a blast.
When on the larger shad angling rivers of the Pacific Northwest, look for them at around v-xx anxiety deep and relatively close to shore—often within thirty feet or so.
Farther southward, there is some bang-up shad fishing in California, including big runs on the Sacramento River and several tributaries and in select coastal rivers, such equally the Russian River.
Wherever yous are fishing for shad, take notation of the depths and possible travel lanes where other anglers are hooking the most shad.
Finding similar conditions should bring fish to your net as well, but you may demand to effort different depths and lanes to become them dialed in.
When to Grab Shad
Spawn begins at unlike times, depending on where you lot are located. Warm water spurs them on, so in the southern reaches of their range, they spawn earlier than areas farther north.
Many anglers agree that the prime angling time for shad is the hours only earlier dark, although when shad are thick, just virtually any time of day will be productive.
Since shad don't feed when spawning, treat them as you would a salmon and try to incite a strike because the fish is annoyed. Cast shad darts and crappie jig heads in bright colors like chartreuse and green.
On overcast days, you may be able to target shad holding in shallower water or up off the bottom, and they may be resting in pools or behind breaks in the current.
When it is clear and sunny, they are going to be holding closer to the bottom and peradventure in deeper water to avoid the direct sunlight.
One setback you may run into with the shad spawn is that it coincides with salmon angling in some areas.
While it is exciting to take a salmon take your fiddling shad lure, make sure you lot check for any current restrictions and regulations regarding salmon and shad for the rivers you plan to target.
For example, in my home country of Oregon, you need a special tag to harvest the bigger fish that isn't required for shad fishing.
How to Take hold of Shad
Shad don't actively feed in freshwater.
They stop the feeding cycle when leaving the sea and are simply going to strike because they are annoyed, or, to a lesser extent, because they instinctively see the item as food.
The all-time bait for American shad are pocket-sized, artificial lures including jigs, spinners, spoons and like lures. Shiny or brightly colored lures work all-time, although shad besides are known to bite a shiny bare hook, especially attached to a swivel to give it some swaying activeness.
Chucking lures similar the popular shad darts from a boat or the shore will nearly always deliver results if the fish are running.
The trick with these fish is that they travel in schools. Once y'all find a school, you lot may be able to follow information technology and catch fish all day.
A more common approach, at least in some waters, is to set up in an expanse where you take learned the schools will pass during their migrations. If the run is going strong, you likely won't have to wait all that long.
Set your rod up with 6- to 12-pound test and use lures or hooks around a 1 or a 1/0 size.
In nigh waters, shad tend to hold in the slow- to mid-flow sections and are going to be hanging out a bit deeper when it'due south lite out.
They are known to have a light aversion, so morning and evening fishing and overcast days tend to lead to stronger bites and may allow a shallower arroyo.
If it's brilliant and sunny, yous may observe more than success past fishing in 15 feet or then of water, depending on location and other factors.
On major rivers, target areas merely beneath obstructions.
Think of the Columbia River and how there are several major dams up its length. In the waters before these dams, shad will stack up in thick schools before climbing fish ladders.
In one case yous find these schools, you'll be in for a great twenty-four hour period of line-fishing.
Boat Line-fishing for Shad
Lures cast from boats work very well. Boats make information technology a bit easier to find the schools and either move with them or park in their travel lanes.
The all-time way to take hold of from a gunkhole is going to vary, depending on water atmospheric condition and whether or not the shad are in the mood for the colors you are tossing.
Drop your anchor along the side or simply above a holding area, but be certain y'all have the appropriate equipment.
Anchoring in the deceptively powerful current of big rivers tin can exist a risky business if you don't come well-equipped or don't know what yous are doing.
Some anglers will cast from a gunkhole while others will run their lure dorsum behind the gunkhole, with the lure coming off a dropper with enough weight below to drop the lure correct into fish-belongings depths.
You may or may not use a rod holder with the latter approach, merely y'all must be ready to human action apace.
A very popular strategy that is deployed across the northeastern coast is to let the lure or jig drift along and then "dangle" on the cease of the line.
Letting information technology sit like that can be very productive or tin miss the schoolhouse entirely. Schools of shad are long and skinny, not short and fat, so it's easy to exist fishing next to a school and not get a bite.
A elementary setup is to attach a 3-style swivel to your mainline, so connect a 3- to iv-pes leader to i loop and the lure or spoon. Add together a 2-human foot dropper line with enough weight for the conditions and then lower the setup to the bottom behind your anchored gunkhole.
The lure will do all the piece of work moving in the current, and when a school comes along, you'll accept some pretty fast activity.
You'll need a calorie-free- to medium-activity rod for almost shad fishing. Your bass or trout rod will often practice the trick.
In potent currents that require upwardly to several ounces of lead to reach the fish, you might need to take hold of your next heaviest rods.
Bank Line-fishing for Shad
Shad fishing is one of the best options for bank anglers to get involved in a spawning run.
Shad like the shallower, slower sections that are easier to admission from the depository financial institution than, say, salmon, who stay in deeper, harder to reach sections.
Head out to the nearest river belongings shad, set up on the banking company with a 7-foot calorie-free-activity rod and half dozen- to 12-pound test. Heavier tackle besides is appropriate for heavier currents, so I take used my steelhead rod at times.
Ane arroyo is to employ a shad dart beneath a slip bobber. The slip bobber will allow you to easily arrange the depth the lure is running at and will provide an fifty-fifty, natural catamenia through the water.
If the bobber isn't working out, alter up your tactics and endeavor drift angling by adding some divide shot, a slinky or other weight about ii feet up from the lure.
As the lure or jig moves through the area, lift your rod tip every few seconds. The irregular movement causes the lure to move erratically, which may trigger an otherwise uninterested shad to seize with teeth.
The Best Shad Lures
Now to some lure choices.
Shad darts are a longtime get-to for these fish. Traditional color patterns include crimson and white, but other vivid-colored dart-manner lures will catch shad.
There are a skillful number of small spoons, simple spinners and crappie-style weighted jig heads with brilliant twisty-tails that will business relationship for lots of hooked shad.
We've defenseless shad on a simple nickel siwash claw pinched to a expert-sized barrel nickel-plated hinge, which makes a wearisome merely enticing motion in electric current.
Similarly, other anglers swear by simply threading iii-4 colorful and/or metallic beads on the line above a single claw volition do the play a trick on using a like rig.
For some presentations, such equally using a dropper with weight on the bottom, some anglers will utilize two lures, oftentimes two unlike types such equally a small-scale spoon and a shad sprint.
Lures for shad fishing are going to come up in all sorts of sizes, only the standard, well-nigh pop sizes are one/16 and ane/8 ounces.
For small-scale spoons, spinners and similar lures fished in a higher place a weight, or in many cases used in drift fishing, light-weight lures with action in the current tend to score enough of strikes.
While a variety of colors will work for shad, definitely include some bright chartreuse and greenish in your arsenal.
Fly Fishing for Shad
Shad on the fly can be a fantastic fight. Use a five weight with floating line and a sinking tippet.
The fly needs to sink, just with a floating mainline, you tin can quickly determine the proper depth.
Most shad flies are brightly colored. Casting flies like Crazy Charlies, Clousers, Woolly Buggers, and other similar patterns can piece of work well.
If you are wary of trying out shad on the fly, don't exist. There is a good reason their nickname is "picayune tarpon."
Are Shad Good to Consume?
This answer will depend on who you inquire and what dishes they prefer to eat.
Shad are peculiarly bony, which makes them more difficult to fix and eat unless you are canning them, which softens to small bones enough to simply swallow.
Boiling or smoking them makes the bones easier to remove. I've eaten them smoked and enjoyed them, but honestly I don't like them every bit well as many other fish species.
Shad also tend to be oily, which impacts their season.
Depending on your cultural food preferences, shad may be your ideal food fish. When I've fished pop shad spots, information technology's oft a mix of anglers speaking languages from around the world.
Some people also love to consume shad roe, which can be prepared in several ways. Again, it'due south not my favorite but anglers who prize the roe will especially want the egg-filled female fish.
Like their smaller herring cousins, shad also make fantabulous bait.
I have used them to catch sturgeon and Dungeness crabs, and I know of a few people who use shad cut-allurement for catfish.
For sturgeon fishing, strips of shad meat work well for typical-sized fish while whole shad can exist deployed for catching and releasing massive fish.
For crabbing, slice the carcass crossways a few times on each side to release more odour, but be aware that seals and sea lions beloved fresh fish and are likely to steal your bait right out of your traps if these big marine mammals are anywhere nearby.
On the West Coast where shad are non-natives and sometimes run in river-filling numbers, some people even harvest them as garden fertilizer.
Source: https://www.bestfishinginamerica.com/how-to-american-shad-fishing-simple-tips-and-techniques.html
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