I've never seen so many American shad

[Flying Fish]

As I saw at Fletcher's this morning. I had one on my fly rod on my very first cast, got three or four more and had three Americans before I'd caught 2 hickories. I ended up with about a dozen hickories--they were BIG--a few white perch, and the Americans. There two people fishing with spinning rods in a boat near me and it seemed they had one every cast from the time I got there are 6.40 am until I left a little after 9. Some of them must have been hickories, but not many. Amazing. They seemed to be outfishing everyone else, including Joe Fletcher and Mike Bailey, but I think most people if not everyone was catching at least some American shad, except of course the people fishing for stripers. Every boat was out by about 8.15 am.

And I must have been doing something right because I lost some flies today. White with red head was working, dunno what else was because I didn't try anything else. The fish were nice (no monsters, though).

:D

FF

[HJS]

I thought shad fishing at Fletchers couldn't get any better than it was last Wednesday & Thursday... but it did... waaaaay better!!! Coming home from Fletchers this afternoon I though how in the heck am I going to word this report without being labeled a liar. Thanks Flying Fish for leading the way to truth.

Fished Fletchers, May 1, from 6:30am to 1:30pm, from shore with spinning gear. High tide 9:00am. Off to a slow start, but by 7:15 action picked up noticeable for nice hickories. Then around 9:30am, just after peak high tide, the Americans turned on in incredible numbers. Between 10:00 and noon, something happened on almost ever cast. By the time I quit and headed back to the car I was closing in on triple digits (verified by my fish counter). Fully one half of them, maybe more, were Americans. Americans were a good split between young bucks and big females. Can't get any better than this!!! Undoubtedly my best day ever fishing for Americans anywhere including the Susky at Conowingo.

[Flying Fish]

And I had to leave at a little after 9. But the action was pretty good for a couple people even before, and I certainly did well enough, especially with the long rod. But 50 American shad in a day? Wow.

Howard, was that you in a blue shirt wading up to your waist?

FF

[HJS]

No, wasn't me. I was wearing a tan shirt with hip boots. I'm a rock sitter. All up & down the river I have located nice flat rocks at the waters edge at strategic locations were I can plop my fanny down and fish and unhook fish without getting up... saves the back. One of them even has a cup holder in the form of an old dynamite blow-hole.

[billx8]

Congratulations for sure. I got there about 10:45 (Virginia side) and caught one herring in about 15 minutes and gave it up and went to Occoquan for one hickory. I thought it was over for the year. I had two days this year at the spot I was fishing with fifty hickories in not too long a time so the place I was fishing does work. So far this year I have caught zero Americans. The moral - beats me. Keep fishing.

[The Old Man]

Fished for a little over an hour yesterday afternoon, started at my normal spot and had ONE strike, a small 12" striper. Gave up and moved downstream a bit to another spot...and caught 6 Americans in 15 minutes.

Then I had to leave. Dangit.

[Tissy Furnes]

Good on ya, Dr. Fish!

[Salmo trutta]

Good God! What's wrong with me? I can't catch an American to save my life. Are they in deeper water? Say down from fletchers? Or are they amongst all the hickories anywhere you look? Striper season opened on Tuesday so a lot of people will be fishing for them now. Weird how everyone got off the river by 8:15. Maybe that's my problem, I get there too late but then look at reports like Howard's. High tide was around 9am so at 11 there would have been maximum current up there, maybe that's why he did so well.

Well done to everyone. This is a great year for shad but it's been slow for the striped pajama fish.

Thinking of starting EARLY tomorrow and fishing the whole day. I'm going to be tired for sure come Friday's work meeting and probably all raccoon eyed from wearing sunglasses all day but that's the price we pay to be so blessed with such a great fishery in our nations capital. Tight lines.

One more thing. I've read that those perfectly circular holes in the rocks that might look like a dynamite blow hole are actually natural. They are created when sediments get trapped in a groove in the rock. When water continuously passes over the rock the sediments circle around and around. This eventually erodes a perfectly symmetrical hole in the rocks that looks almost too perfect. They make good rod holders sometimes too. You'll see them all over the river, far from any urbanization.

[kiko13]

Salmo- My buddy Curly caught two stripies yesterday; 1st was at 0645 and was 35.75" and the second was at 1045 and was 37.5" (he went back in). He also caught a bijillion white perch (kept 35 over 8") a few thousand herring and 6 Americans! You know how we fish.

Ernie

[The Old Man]

One more thing. I've read that those perfectly circular holes in the rocks that might look like a dynamite blow hole are actually natural. They are created when sediments get trapped in a groove in the rock. When water continuously passes over the rock the sediments circle around and around. This eventually erodes a perfectly symmetrical hole in the rocks that looks almost too perfect. They make good rod holders sometimes too. You'll see them all over the river, far from any urbanization.

Salmo: they're called "potholes" and they can get huge...big enough to park a car in.

There are a bunch along the river trail @ Great Falls Park in VA that are big enough to jump into...

[HJS]

What a difference a day makes!!! Over the years I don't know how many times I've heard this reframe echoed on TF. It applied today at Fletchers... in spades!!!

I went back today, 10:30am-1:30pm, to pick up where I left off yesterday with the Americans... how could I NOT go back!!! Hit the same time slot, 10:30am to 12:30pm, with allowances for tide, and same place too where I hit it big the day before. But everything had changed over night. However, it all looked the same... except the Americans were no where to be found. Even the hickories had slowed down. I managed to catch 2 Americans and maybe 6 hickories before abandoning my beat. Then I walked way upriver of Fletchers to see if I could catch up to the Americans, but no deal. Even the hickories above Fletchers had thinned out. Guess I caught maybe 15 more hickories above Fletchers but no more Americans. I fished many spots above Fletchers but I felt I was just picking off straggler hickories here and there. By noon the area above Fletchers was nearly deserted of bank fishermen, I had my choice of spots. Lots of herring activity above Fletchers, heavy run, they were flipping all over the place as far as I could see upriver. So I guess the stripers can't be too far behind. Packed it up around 1:30pm and headed home. I remembered a line I read years ago... "Wilderness revisited is never the same", who said that???... Hemingway??? Certainly applied here today.

I got the feeling that yesterday I was at the right spot at the right time and caught the leading edge of a major run of Americans. Who knows where they are now, maybe well above CB, maybe up to Little Falls Dam or farther... who knows.

Salmo - I know what natural pots holes look like, there's lots of them all thru the Potomac, especially in the Mather Gorge. However, around Little Falls rapids at Center Rock, and elsewhere too in the area, there's lots of dynamite blowholes in many of the big boulders. They are all the exact same diameter, about as big around as a coke can. Many are pitched at sharp angles, very unlike natural potholes. I have the feeling the area from just above Center Rock on down to the platform may have been radically altered by mans activities. Only guessing here, but maybe during colonial times, they tried to dynamite closed side channels to improve navigate, dunno. As you have probably seen, above Center Rock to Little Falls Dam, the Potomac has many large side channels. But they all converge just above Center Rock. I've often wondered what that area looked like 100s of years ago.

[Flying Fish]

Salmo: The only thing I can think of is you have to go deep to catch American shad. On Tuesday I lost several rigs on the bottom. The spin fishermen I was watching were getting hung up from time to time as well. I've not discovered many (any?) places around Fletcher's where the fish generally are absent--I've caught them from shore below and above, up to CB; on the boat in various parts of the river and watched others do well. Some days one spot can do much better than most others, some days many spots seem to do well.

HJS, the weather was different today. I know I got lucky going down there Tuesday am (would have been even luckier if I could have stayed longer). Monday apparently wasn't so good. Who knows what tomorrow will be like?

FF

[Tissy Furnes]

Salmo, strip slower. Mike ALpert, a long-time spin guy who has fished for shad for 40-50 years at Fletchers gave a talk I attended and he said that, plus the getting deep, was the big reason why fly fishers don't hook more Americans.

[Flying Fish]

I can second that (strip slower); I've caught a couple between strips even. But some of the spin guys are reeling and jigging their darts; I've tried imitating that motion with some success as well. But you can't keep a fly deep if you're stripping too fast anyway.

FF

[ihatework]

I am one of those spin guys-I lurk around here a lot....................................

I had a very interresting experience catching some of the biggest americans i have caught at fletcher's, on tuesday. I had vaguely remembered someone, on this board I think, reccomending fishing deep for americans with a jig just dangling in the current. On tuesday I rigged by back-up rod with a heavy dart (1/4 ounce) on the bottom and a much lighter dart on the top. I casted it out and let it sit in the current, while casting and retrieving the other rod. In the course of an hour and a half I had three strikes on the rod that wqas just sitting there, all americans. One that I lost at the side of the boat was the biggest american I have caught at fletcher's in four seasons of avid shad fishing. On the rod I was casting and retrieving I had pretty regular hickiry action but only one american.

I am not sure what this says about american vs. hickory behavior but i am sure going to do the same thing when i go tomorrow.

[Flying Fish]

ihatework: A couple of the real spinfishing pros at Fletcher's do it that way; it's fun to watch them. If I were spinfishing, I'd consider using a small egg sinker with a small Nungesser spoon and a dart as droppers above the sinker, with the sinker on lighter line than the others in case it were to hang up, then you'd lose only the sinker.

FF

[goose70]

I am one of those spin guys-I lurk around here a lot....................................

I had a very interresting experience catching some of the biggest americans i have caught at fletcher's, on tuesday. I had vaguely remembered someone, on this board I think, reccomending fishing deep for americans with a jig just dangling in the current. On tuesday I rigged by back-up rod with a heavy dart (1/4 ounce) on the bottom and a much lighter dart on the top. I casted it out and let it sit in the current, while casting and retrieving the other rod. In the course of an hour and a half I had three strikes on the rod that wqas just sitting there, all americans. One that I lost at the side of the boat was the biggest american I have caught at fletcher's in four seasons of avid shad fishing. On the rod I was casting and retrieving I had pretty regular hickiry action but only one american.

I am not sure what this says about american vs. hickory behavior but i am sure going to do the same thing when i go tomorrow.


Bingo. My first American happened a few years ago when I didn't realize the bail was open and the dart tandem dropped to the bottom, right below the boat. I picked up the rod and thought, "sang." But wait, it's moving!

Today with Cutter, same thing. The two Americans (one was my personal best) were each caught with the heavy dart sitting still on the bottom and the light pink/white dart swaying in the curent.

[ihatework]

ihatework: A couple of the real spinfishing pros at Fletcher's do it that way; it's fun to watch them. If I were spinfishing, I'd consider using a small egg sinker with a small Nungesser spoon and a dart as droppers above the sinker, with the sinker on lighter line than the others in case it were to hang up, then you'd lose only the sinker.

FF



That is the exact rig I intend to use tomorrow. I will post the results. Man, those big americans were fun!!

[Cutter]

Today a Rio Deep 7 line on a long drift got down well enough to have an equal mix of hickories and Americans. Americans showed a strong preference for pink/white while the hickories liked red/white. Almost all the strikes came as the fly finished the drift and started to come straight. Very little or no strip.