# Shad, Shad and more Shad!



## Captain Ahab (Apr 22, 2008)

2 PEOPLE
TOTAL LANDED: 78
TOTAL HOOKED: 150 plus
TIME SPENT FISHING 4.5 HOURS
LOCATION: CONOWINGO RIVER, MD

I returned from Striper fishing Sunday to a telephone call from Big Dave E. He was pumped with a report of incredible Shad fishing at the Conowingo River Hydroelectric Dam. Between himself and four friends they landed well over 400 fish in a long Sunday outing. He wanted to go back Monday (yesterday) for more even though he claimed his arms were a little sore. 

I quickly made a few phones calls and moved my schedule around putting off some work - I was glad I did. 

We arrived at the Conowingo at about 4 pm armed with shad darts, flutter spoons and assorted other gear. We hit the river and found shad jumping and boiling everywhere. Starting about a quarter mile from the spillway area Dave E immediately hooks into a very large American. He then lands an aerobatic Hickory that jumped a good four to five feet out of the water during the fight. I screwed around trying a few different rigs before "borrowing" the white dart and silver spoon rig that Dave E was using. Almost immediately I get a hit and miss the hook set. 

Dave lands a few more fish and is already at six to my zero. I miss a few more and then let my line swing just a little deeper and am immediately rewarded with a drag screaming hit, I fought the fish as it ripped drag and finally landed a monster American shad - my first of this year: Dave E was a little way upstream and was fighting a large fish so I used the camera timer to snap a quick pic.







I kept swinging and missing or just coming up empty as Dave E kept hauling fish. He landed fish number 12 while I was still on 3. I then picked it up a little and had 7 by the time he hit fish 20.










Dave E lands fish 30 and I am at 12 - he is kicking my ass. Dave E. put on a shad catching show, he found his "sweet spot" and kept hauling fish while I struggled. I switched lures, tried some larger spoons, spinners and different weights. Dave E kept landing fish. 






Suddenly the sirens went off and the red lights started flashing everywhere - they were going to do a release from the dam. We scrambled for higher ground and move stuff up the rocks to a safe place. I was justing getting the touch at this point and landed 6 fish in quick succession. Big Dave E just kept hauling, shouting out the number as he unhooked another fish.

The dam opened up and the river quickly rose about 5 feet - the flow was super strong in the area we were fishing and the shad scattered. We waiting almost an hour to see if they were gonna shut off the flow, reluctant to leave our honey hole. Here, you can see the water shooting out of the dam while Dave E waits on high ground:






We finally gave up and walked down stream to a slight eddy. As soon as we climbed down to the river, we noticed a thick swarm of some super small flies around us, so thick it looked like fog. They did not bite, but kept getting in our faces, ears, hair and everywhere else - very annoying. It was worth braving the bugs as this spot was thick with shad - Dave hits fish 44 as I land fish 24, a double header with both our fish jumping high on the river as we struggled to get them to land.

Dave E gave fish number 40 a love bite:






It is now starting to get dark and the flies are tremendous - Dave E. has his hood tightly around his head, not becuase it was cold (it was nice and warm) but to keep the bugs off his ears. I was, once again missing hook sets and we decided that we would leave when Dave E landed fish number 50. He landed fish 49 and I start yelling at him (while getting a mouthful of bugs) to hurry up and catch number 50 so we could get out of there. Finally, after I frantically dug bugs out of my eyes, ears , nose and hair, he hits 50






That is not snow in the photo - it is the huge swarm of flies

We ended the day with Esquired - 28, Dave E - 50. Losing never felt so good!

Dave E. has all of my pics on his camera so I will post them later.


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## Waterwings (Apr 22, 2008)

Wow! That's some catching there! Congrats to both of you! 8)


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## Jim (Apr 22, 2008)

:beer:

I havn't seen a double digit day (11 measly fish) since last year. 

Killer day Gents!


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## mtnman (Apr 22, 2008)

Congrats on a great day! Looks like it would have been a blast. Doesnt it suck when bugs interfere with a trip like that?


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## G3_Guy (Apr 22, 2008)

WOW... sounds like a fun evening! Congrats!


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## DocWatson (Apr 22, 2008)

Nice report David !!! Even better day fishing !!!!! =D>


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## BIG_DAVE_E (Apr 22, 2008)

It was a great day of fishing, Esquired and I always have a good time even if we only catch a few fish, but yesterday was lots 'o fishes :mrgreen: They should be down there through the first week of may, so if you want in on the action head on down!!!


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## Captain Ahab (Apr 22, 2008)

Some more pics:













*Dave E gets two for one cast!*


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## mtnman (Apr 22, 2008)

I see a few of them fish are nicked up, Is that from the rocks and other structure or are there other fish in there trying to have them as a meal? I like them 2 for 1 deals, nice job Dave E. How big is that river, its looks like it would have some big boys in it!


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## slim357 (Apr 22, 2008)

Nice double up you got there.


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## redbug (Apr 22, 2008)

nice job catching the shad that section of the susquhanna holds some monster smallies also..
I'll be fishng the flats later this week maybe i can catch a few and show you guys

Wayne


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## Captain Ahab (Apr 22, 2008)

mtnman said:


> I see a few of them fish are nicked up, Is that from the rocks and other structure or are there other fish in there trying to have them as a meal? I like them 2 for 1 deals, nice job Dave E. How big is that river, its looks like it would have some big boys in it!



Some of the fish had bite marks from the birds - there are huge stripers in there as well eating the shad, herring and whatever else fits in their mouth. Shad are pretty fragile, they lose scales easy, as you land them. 

The river is really large there - it is right at the top of the Chesapeake bay


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## Captain Ahab (Apr 22, 2008)

redbug said:


> nice job catching the shad that section of the susquhanna holds some monster smallies also..
> I'll be fishng the flats later this week maybe i can catch a few and show you guys
> 
> Wayne




i will be fishing the flats tomorrow Wayne - when you will you be there?


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## FishinsMyLife (Apr 22, 2008)

Looks like ya'll tore 'em up. Nice catchin


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## redbug (Apr 22, 2008)

Derek and I will be pre fishing for a tournament on thurs we are launching out of anchor marine on the north east

Wayne


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## little anth (Apr 22, 2008)

nice job man catch em up


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## slabmaster (Apr 22, 2008)

stupid question from the south.what did you do with the fish you caught? have you ever used them as cut bait for catfish? do they keep well if you freeze them. we have a lot of gizzard shad and thread fin but you have to catch them with throw nets. we also have skip jack herring which is the best cut bait i am aware of.


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## BIG_DAVE_E (Apr 23, 2008)

slabmaster said:


> stupid question from the south.what did you do with the fish you caught? have you ever used them as cut bait for catfish? do they keep well if you freeze them. we have a lot of gizzard shad and thread fin but you have to catch them with throw nets. we also have skip jack herring which is the best cut bait i am aware of.



We released them all, You are not permitted to keep the shad there [-X , otherwise we would have kept a couple to try as cut bait.
We do catch pretty big gizzard shad there also, but only by accidental snagging.


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## Derek777 (Apr 23, 2008)

damn Dave(s), you had a day that people people only dream about. awesome!


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 26, 2009)

Notice the date of this report - April 22, 2008


*How many more days until the Big Shad Run Starts?*


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## Quackrstackr (Jan 26, 2009)

We catch skipjack herring around here for sport and bait. They look very similar. Heck, they may be the same thing for all I know. They look like miniature tarpon.


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## russ010 (Jan 26, 2009)

Awesome job! As thick as those flies were, I would have sworn you were in the backwood Georgia swamps... but it would have been mosquitoes..


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## jkbirocz (Jan 26, 2009)

I am already pumped for this trip, I cannot wait to slay some more shad. Hopefully this year I can catch some american's as they were finished their run when I was there. The hickory's are still a ton of fun, but the americans are so much bigger


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## jl_rotary (Jan 26, 2009)

Captain Ahab said:


> Notice the date of this report - April 22, 2008
> 
> 
> *How many more days until the Big Shad Run Starts?*


Let me know I can meet you guys there


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## FishinsMyLife (Jan 27, 2009)

I started at the beginning and I could have sworn i had seen those pictures before...


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## Captain Ahab (Jan 27, 2009)

FishinsMyLife said:


> I started at the beginning and I could have sworn i had seen those pictures before...



Yeah - last year :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 

I was just trying to plan my spring.

becuase I post a report for most of my fishing trips I can use this site like a fishing journal

So, I was thinking about the great time shad fishing last year and wondered when that happened.

April 22, 2008 was the 1st good date so I will start trying around April 15, 2009 for this year!


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## redbug (Jan 27, 2009)

the shad should start running when the water temps hit the mid to upper 40's The Upper bay has an awesome spring striper run also.


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## gmcdp (Jan 30, 2009)

That is an awesome fishery there. I went to college in Lancaster County and used to run down there for the shad run every spring. We'd catch tons of shad as well as nice smallmouth and big stripers. I haven't been down there in a few years, but I've got some buddies who head down a couple of times each year, maybe I'll get out with them this year....


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