What is it? Kingston Landing

[eastonkayaker]

Fished Choptank River today, launched from Kingston Landing, Talbot County. First time ever I wished I had an anchor. Tide was coming in, wind was about 10 knots, difficult to stay on fish when I found them on the FF. Had several taps, but didn't catch anything, saw several large schools of fish on the finder, there were hundreds of gulls around wokring the surface, silver bait fish in the 3-4" range.

What I did find was about a dozen of these fish washed up on the beach when I arrived just after low tide. Whats your opinion, 16" long? Other picture is the beach area. I fish here a lot in the spring, summer for perch, catfish, the run of spring rockfish is something to watch but of course the river is off limits until June 1.
Sorry about the strap in the picture

[ictalurus]

Gizzard shad, aka "mud shad". They're excellent catfish bait, by the way. Had you been fishing the James or Potomac, you would've been in a primo spot for big blues if there were a lot of those gizzard shad around.

[eastonkayaker]

There were a lot of large schools of fish in the river today. River is about 40 feet in that area, fish were hanging out at 10-15' feet on the edges. Do you ever fish for shad? What do you use?

[surfdog]

thats what i thought. what do you use for shad? shad darts LOL

[ictalurus]

I've not heard of too many people who have caught gizzard shad in the mouth--they're usually snagged while fishing for something else, especially around warm water discharges. Gizzard shad either sieve through mud or pick plankton and other small things out of the water column. Their mouths are pretty small. I've cast lures at them around Solomons, but they never show any interest no matter what I throw. Maybe a fly would work in a small shrimp or worm pattern. It would be cool to be able to catch them regularly because they fight really hard.

I do fish for American shad and hickory shad in April on the Rappahannock. I primarily use shad darts for them, but they also take small spoons, curly tails, spec rigs, and flies. It's tough to use flies where I fish on the Rapp because the current is pretty fast, and I haven't worked out how to mend the line properly. There are lots of fly fishers there, though, and they usually do pretty well.

[surfdog]

giz. shad are usually caught with cast nets or snagged with trebles. in 09 we were catching american shad while catching spot for live lining in eastern bay, didnt see any last summer