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I felt like a change of pace yesterday afternoon, so I figured I'd try my luck in the eternally skunkified Bush River. As a background, I had fished it at least 10 times in last year since I got my yak and have had just as many skunks.
So with all of the reports that perch are making their way back into the rivers further south I figured I'd at least give it a shot and a change of scenery. As I launched from the ramp near the bridge there were a couple of guys reeling in a decent sized catfish on the end of the pier, which at the time I thought was a good sign of the fishing to come. I made my way out along the bridge to find fish breaking the surface all over the place, some even just a few feet from the kayak. Most of them I couldnt really get a good glimpse of and they sounded kind of like they were just slapping their tails on the surface. I had no idea what they were but saw a few good size fish actually come out of the water and thought maybe there were some stripers chasing whatever the smaller ones were. I fished for at least 3 hours trying all kinds of lures and presentations and only got a handful of bumps for the efforts.
I finally gave up on the bridge around 7pm and made my way south to fish some of the shoreline for largemouth. I saw quite a few big fish launch nearly their entire bodies out of the water and again thought I was in for some good luck. I made my way into the small marshy cove and the action I could see was just insane. There were fish chasing something all over that cove. Breaking water, splashing all around, and wake trails that I assumed had to have been decent size fish. Roughly an hour later, after again trying lure after lure after lure to mimic fish, minnows, and frogs, I finally hooked into something. It turns out I had my 1st ever shad, snagged on the trebles of the slashbait I was jerking through the water. I imagine it was shad I was seeing chasing minnows and a few stripers and largemouth breaking the surface going after the shad.
Until yesterday I had never understood the interest in fishing for shad. Had I been using the appropriate lures I imagine I would have pulled in a ton of fish yesterday.
So for anyone that knows how to catch shad and wants to do it, there are an absolutely absurd amount of them in the Bush River right now. My guess is there are so many that my lures just got lost in the mix for the stripers and largemouth chasing them.
So with all of the reports that perch are making their way back into the rivers further south I figured I'd at least give it a shot and a change of scenery. As I launched from the ramp near the bridge there were a couple of guys reeling in a decent sized catfish on the end of the pier, which at the time I thought was a good sign of the fishing to come. I made my way out along the bridge to find fish breaking the surface all over the place, some even just a few feet from the kayak. Most of them I couldnt really get a good glimpse of and they sounded kind of like they were just slapping their tails on the surface. I had no idea what they were but saw a few good size fish actually come out of the water and thought maybe there were some stripers chasing whatever the smaller ones were. I fished for at least 3 hours trying all kinds of lures and presentations and only got a handful of bumps for the efforts.
I finally gave up on the bridge around 7pm and made my way south to fish some of the shoreline for largemouth. I saw quite a few big fish launch nearly their entire bodies out of the water and again thought I was in for some good luck. I made my way into the small marshy cove and the action I could see was just insane. There were fish chasing something all over that cove. Breaking water, splashing all around, and wake trails that I assumed had to have been decent size fish. Roughly an hour later, after again trying lure after lure after lure to mimic fish, minnows, and frogs, I finally hooked into something. It turns out I had my 1st ever shad, snagged on the trebles of the slashbait I was jerking through the water. I imagine it was shad I was seeing chasing minnows and a few stripers and largemouth breaking the surface going after the shad.
Until yesterday I had never understood the interest in fishing for shad. Had I been using the appropriate lures I imagine I would have pulled in a ton of fish yesterday.
So for anyone that knows how to catch shad and wants to do it, there are an absolutely absurd amount of them in the Bush River right now. My guess is there are so many that my lures just got lost in the mix for the stripers and largemouth chasing them.
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