Shad?

[summersoff]

Anybody have any luck yet?

[rugbyfish]

Tried for a few hours Friday morning with no luck, and didn’t see any landed around me. Seems like it’s hit or miss right now.

[Red_Beard]

The shad bite at Fletchers has been very very slow. There was a flurry of catches, mostly American shad, two weeks ago, but the cold snap shut the bite down. The shad have been slow to come back in any numbers. My guess is most of those fish moved back downriver, and now we're waiting for the second wave to show up. Its possible they could get to biting this week, but we have another, albeit milder, cold front coming at the end of the week that will likely slow things down again or just further delay the run. However, following this coming weekend we have a good solid week of warmer days and nights coming that will extend through at least the first weekend of April. That should definitely get them biting again.

[dsaavedra]

Are there any areas that produce shad with any consistency besides Fletchers? That seems to be the only spot you ever hear about with regard to the shad run.

[Red_Beard]

FYI, the shad were biting at Fletchers yesterday, and are still biting this morning according to reports I've seen. I suspect the bite will slow down this weekend with the front coming through, but they will be biting again next week as it warms back up. Folks were catching both hickories and Americans.

Dave, per your questions there are a number of other places in the area to catch shad pretty consistently. The bite is pretty good on the Susquehanna below Conniwingo, especially near the confluence with Deer Creek. You can also get them on the upper Patuxent, the Rappahanock near Fredericksburg, below Occoquan dam, the headwaters of Mattawoman Creek, and in several eastern shore rivers. Some of these rivers, like the Susquehanna, offer both American and hickory shad, while the smaller rivers and creeks tend to only get hickories. There are runs stretching from New England down to the St John's River in Florida. The Delaware River around Philly may be the best run on the east coast. Most all of my shad fishing has been at Fletchers though, so I don't know as much about the timing and specific locations for those other rivers beyond what I've picked up from other reports.