39 Hours later

With weather closing in it had been 39 Hours since my last trip to the shad run, I hope it won't be so long before I'm there again.   I had the island tip hole to myself for the first hour as the rain built in Friday morning, the river had begun to rise but nit enough to effect the run or its fishability, so with hood up against the big drops I rigged up with this sparkly self tie.  

This dart is tied on a 1/16oz jig head and still needed more weight to bite into the current.   When I added weight If ound that it really began to reduce the casting efficiency of my HF 5wt so I took off my splitshot and added 10 feet of sink tip line to the leader.    This worked out well but the long casts required to get into the optimum strike area are tricky with the backcast bank brush.




The fly above fished slowly today so I changed to a pattern Fritz tied last year, a chartreuse jig head with a silver chenille midesction and a sparse buck tail.   The shad really liked this pattern and it with its offset eyelet it seemed to bite deeper into the current.....fish on.

This old HF SF is amazing its got butt-backbone and great flex for the first 4'

 

I was joined by a very nice long rodder from Williamsburg after an hour or so and enjoyed watching him manipulate his 5wt switch rod with a silky switch cast (no backcast).    He got into them immediately and his shooting head really allowed allowed him to cover lots of water.  Next time out I'll fish my 5wt switch and work on my switch cast.    The fishing kept up steady, the water rose a bit but never was a problem.   I ended the day with a great fight from this daddy...

Big daddy Hickory shad

 panorama of the hole

Thx for looking

Spring has sprung and Shad are here

Spring teased the Mid-Atlantic in February, the promise of an early fishing season ending with an early March Snowstorm.  I have been itching to get back on the river and headed south on 95 with my very game boss after work to check the Shad Run on the Rappahannock.    Jessica had never fished the run so I let her know that we'd either hit them and have a great time or have casting practice for 15 minutes and head back if they were not in yet.   Turns out that the run is building, Fritz had reported a few hook-ups three days ago, and we were blessed with enough fish to keep us busy and few anglers at tip-of-the-island hole above the Falmouth Bridge.  

Jessica gamely donned XL waders and boots a few inches too big and we moved across the island to the pool.   Osprey were diving for herring (always a good sign) and as I moved into the hole a spooked a pod of hickory shad etched smile on my face. 

I rigged Jessica with a medium spinning outfit w a shad spoon under a sliding sinker and used my Orvis SF Henry's Fork 5-Wt with weighted silver-chenille shad darts tied over the winter.    Steering my backcast through pockets in the bank-trees I was able to nearly reach the rapid break on the far side of the pool, mend the line to the left as it drifted to the right to get some depth....then WHACK -- shad-on!  As Fritz and I found last year there's a sweet deep slot that holds the moist shad if one stands on the rock ledge and casts out and then retrieves back, after the offering leaves the fastest current it sinks into the slot and hook-ups are a good bet.   

 I love these fighters and when Jessica hooked and landed a beauty the day was a total success.   We only stayed for 90-minutes, but had a great time. I'll be back in a few hours.