Hickory shad...Susq and Deer creek

[chucknduck]

Went for a bike ride yesterday along the above mentioned waterways (time was between 11am and 3pm).... Conowingo dam area we saw what appeared to be a mud shad (Patapsco Permit) caught, very few fisherman... Stafford road bridge, no fish spotted, few fisherman....mouth of Deer creek saw one fish caught just uptream of bridge, once again few fisherman..... Rock run (Old Toll bridge pilings area) quite a few boats, saw a couple fish caught from shore and boats... looked to be pretty slow day.

[Frog Hair]

Chuck
Thanks for the update.
I can tell you it was slow out there because one of the boats you saw in front of the mill was possibly me. What a year for shad fishing this has been so far on the Susky. I can’t ever remember it being this bad. Just think, on a normal year this would be the prime fishing week coming up. Today Deer Creek is high and muddy almost over its banks. So we loose another week of fishing the creek that only leaves us with possibly 1 week of good fishing. Again in a normal year hickories can be caught starting on the 1st of April in the creeks and pretty much are done by the end of the month with the exception of a few good days in May, but that’s it.
Back to us in the boat out in front of the mill. Between 2 of us working maybe 5 hours with fly rods and a spin locator our totals were around 12 fish and a really nice small mouth. Water was clear, and fast, but a very cold 45 degrees. The most excitement of the day was watching a huge rock trying to gulp down an also huge gizzard shad that was mortally wounded and floundering on the surface. It took him 4/5 tries and allot of splashing but he got it done and all within 10 feet of the boat.
Wayne Blottenberger

[HJS]

I agree, the Susky shad run should have started 2 weeks ago. Undoubtedly, the prolonged flooding of the Susky certainly hurt but for a lot of this time Deer Creek was in excellent condition... but nothing showed up there either. My only guess is that not only was the Susky flooding, which hurt, but the water temp was unseasonally low, and this may have hurt even more. Central PA and NY has had a lot of heavy late season snows and melting snow keeps waterways extra cold. Hopefully, the shad are holed up somewhere nearby, maybe near Havre de Grace or the southern end of the flats, waiting like we are for warmer/lower water.

On the other hand, the Potomac shad run at Fletchers was is high gear last week, as good as it gets. Flows were great and for a while water temps in the lower Potomac hit the upper 50Fs and low 60Fs and the hickories responded. I don't think the Susky got anywheres near 60F, maybe upper 40Fs if you were lucky. We can only hope for lower flows and warmer water... and looks like that may take several more days for conditions to improve.