Great day Shadding in So. MD

[kevinfry]

Ictalarus Bill took me to his special Shad spot Today. We had caught half a dozen in this spot last year, so we were hopeful, though fishing much earlier than last year.
Rained cats and dogs early, had to wait in the truck for it to calm a bit, then paddled off. We found hickories right away. It did take awhile to get consistent action...Some were real fatties


.red and white darts were the fav today for both of us. We cast tandem rigs with red on the bottom and something else trailing. I was trailing an ol' PNW trout and kokanee spoon, a Triple Teazer.



I got several doubles during the day but this was the only one that made it into the yak, the others had boatside flip off of one of the fish


It was a five species day for me. A nice crappie, three channel catfish, and a little rock hit the shad darts and about a half dozen micro perch took the little spoon. When the wind finally kicked up, we headed home...pretty happy guys.

[ictalurus]

It was the best day of shad fishing I've had in years. Apparently, there's a shad fishing equivalent to "striper thumb"--I"ll call it "shad pinky". Their belly scales roughed up the skin on my finger. Clearly, I need to fish more to build up my calluses.

Here are my pics of the day. It's funny the see the wardrobe changes that followed the changes in the weather.













I also saw some cool flowers on the shore. I'm not sure what they are, maybe a species of Uvularia?



It was a pretty awesome day. I guess shad don't mind an incoming cold front. The bass fishermen were doing pretty well, too, at least in the morning. The water was warmer than I thought it would be--about 64* according to my fishfinder. Nearly all my fish were caught on a tandem rig with an 1/8oz chartreuse dart and an 1/8oz red and white dart. It seemed like the big females like the red and white while the males liked the chartreuse, but the females might've just hit the red and white one because it was the first dart on the rig. I tried pink darts and orange darts, but only the chartreuse and red and white caught anything.

[HJS]

Nice going... both of you.

Kevinfry - I can't seem to open any of your pictures. What do I have to do to open them?

Ict... Your pics came through fine.

[kevinfry]

hmmmm, i'll reload them

[HJS]

Thanks... I can see them fine now. Nice looking hickories. Couple of them are certainly heavy with roe.

[kevinfry]

I lost a monster at the boat,....it was one of my doubles. Bill caught a real heavy one too. Seems the ladies like red and white

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