Fletchers, 3-28-12

[HJS]

I fished Fletchers today from shore, 3-28-12, 10:30am-2:30pm. Decent day of hickory fishing. The hickory run is ramping up nicely. I caught about 30 hickories, mostly mediums with at least 8+ nice-sized females. Lure of the day was anything chartreuse or limetreuse. I caught many on limetreuse 1.5” twistertails on 1/16oz heads with 1/2oz inline sinker. The other night I powder painted the inside surface of a couple silver spoons a bright chartreuse. They worked well too as did chartreuse shad darts. I caught no American shad or white perch.

River in good condition. Flow has improved over the past few days and visibility has dropped from 6’ to 3’, which I think was a step in the right direction concerning catching shad mid-day. Nearly calm too, I shoulda brought my canoe. Not many fishermen either. At 10:30am there were more boats at the pier than out on the water. Only guy I was able to talk to briefly was a lone kayaker that drifted by.

[Shady]

Thanks for sharing! Could you post a picture of your shad rig. I've never fished for shad, but intend to vry soon...

[HJS]

shadyfisher - I'll get some pics together this evening.

[Meadeo]

Nice report thank you for sharing.

Looks like this weekend will be a banner shad fishing one if everything holds out.

Thanks,

Meadeo

[camelbird]

Nice work!!! 30 shad, nicely done.

Cant wait to get back out to fletchers.

Hope to see some MKF members out this weekend

[HJS]

Shadyfisher – First pic is of my standard arsenal of lures I use for shad, both hickory and American. Left/top 5 are standard shad darts. Left/bottom 3 are spoons; silver nungusser with chartreuse inner surface; silver shad king with two tiny flicker spoons on hook shank; last is a silver Nungusser. These spoons come in gold too, they also work well. On the right are various soft plastics sold commonly as 1.5” crappie tubes, sold everywhere. The one limetreuse twistertail at the top/right is my all time favorite.

Second pic shows how I rig these lures for fishing at Fletchers. Lure goes at the end of the line of course. But first I slide a bullet weight up the line about 2.5’ and lock it in place with a round tooth pick shoved firmly up the hole. Cut off excess toothpick. The weight in the pic is ½ oz. That’s really heavy for most shad fishing but at Fletchers it works out well. A lot of Fletchers is very deep and the lure must go deep to get down to the American shad. My last trip I was letting the ½ oz rig sink to a 8-10 count(seconds) before starting the retrieve, sometimes even deeper. See third pic of representative shot of Fletchers with Chain Bridge just barely visible in the distance. If you plan on fishing the Susky for shad than you want to use far lighter additional weights or maybe none at all if flow is low. Just watch what everyone else is doing.

Third pic shows the tunnel at Fletchers you must drive thru to get to the cartop launch at the far end of the lower parking lot. The lowest point of the tunnel is 7’ (84”), allow yourself a few extra inches of clearance. My Jeep Cherokee with canoe on top fits thru with several inches to spare. But do measure if you have a high vehicle because it could get very messy if its too high.

[Shady]

Thanks for all of the pictures. I have a bunch of shad darts and small tubes and stuff like that, but didnt know the bullet sinker trick. Hopefully I can make it down there or to the susky before the M&G.

[HJS]

On rare occasions, when power casting for distance, the heavier weights will tend to slide down to the lure. When this happens I'll insert a small swivel (I cut the snap off of a swivel snap) and insert it just behind the bullet weight. The swivel will keep it from sliding down.

Also, bullet weights tend to slide over rocks better than splitshot that tend to wedge between rocks.

When shad fishing shoulder to shoulder at the base of Conowingo Dam or at the mouth of Deer Creek (which is kinda par for the course at these 2 spots), bullet weights will slide over other people's lines fairly easily. On the other hand, it seems splitshot will catch every line they come in contact with.

[jet]

Thanks for the pics. That's a great idea with the toothpick I,m in the Fletcher's area almost daily and have a rod in my truck, but never stopped.