Shad...did Someone Say Shad?

[troutman6]

thought I heard someone say sdad. I quess not, well back to sleep for now.

[troutman6]

SHAD

[Frog Hair]

Troutman6, are you and your brother going to be at the tiefest this Saturday?
Shad, give it another month before you start cleaning up the 3 wt and tying another thousand flies to go along with the thousands left over from previous years. I can’t wait.
Wayne B.

[troutman6]

hey Wayne, how you doing, you definetly will be seeing Craig and myself. Hope to see you too. Won't be long we'll be catching em one after the other.

[HJS]

troutman - This early in the year you can only mention "S**D" when in small groups hunched together and then only in hushed tones. Any general announcement now will only cause mass premature foaming of the mouth. Probably sometime around mid March some TFer will yell "S**D" then all H**L breaks lose. In the meantime everyone who fishes Fletchers for you-know-what oughta be getting their DC fishing license.

[Tissy Furnes]

Shad...

Shad Up You Face...

Up Shad's Creek...

You Must be Shadding Me

Shad -- The Latest Fly FIshing Fad

The ShadUp Mapes!

Lots of fun can be had with the word Shad but the most fun is catching them.

[uncle phill]

Lots of fun can be had with the word Shad but the most fun is catching them.

Indeed! Poor man's tarpon. :thumbup:

[FishStu]

Saw a sign at a local restaurant today ---"FRESH SHAD".
Won't be long now !!!

[NNKjake]

alright, i know basically nothing about shad. what i do know is that i need to get in on the action. i have a 4 wt (floating) and an 8 wt(int & sink), what would be best? also--what basic patterns are good go-to's?

I can search the board for some decent wade spots on the potomac to start with, i'm not asking for anyones money honey hole.

bottom line is that i'm trying to score some shad, i want to be there when the shad hits the fan, i want to hook into the homeless man's tarpon!

also,big ups to Tony, i again had a great time a tie fest, learned a cool grass shrimp pattern i have been obsessively working on and thinking about (rattles??)

Jake

[Dr. C]

An 8 wt seems like a little bit of overkill. http://http://www.wiprud.com/flies.htm

the diagram on that page is a decent one.

[mitchmtm1]

An 8 wt seems like a little bit of overkill.


Except when a nice schoolie rockfish decided that he wants that fly.:clapping2:


Mitch

[Sleeves]

What kind of flies do you guys use for Shad?

[Salmo trutta]

Yes I'm getting excited too.

It's not really the rod, it's what line are you going to use. If you only have one heavy sinking line and the only thing that can cast it is an 8wt, than so be it.

I"ve used rio Deep Lake 7 sinking line on my 9'5wt and on my 7wt for shad. Oh yea, I've also used it on my 9wt at CBBT for stripers. It didn't overload the 5wt too bad because I was fishing one fly with no extra weight or heavy eyes. A six would handle it well.

But a 12' sinking tip fused into the line that's about 250 grains would be more suitable. However, there are times in the peak of the shad run where floating lines will work on the Potomac. They will almost always work on Deer Creek btw. But those fish are fussier.

As for schoolies taking shad flies... it does happen but not very often. Try something bigger and it will happen a lot more often. Those fish are there to eat herring and later perch.

Shad flies.... do a search on this board, there's been numerous posts about them. Anything flashy, size 3-10 will do the trick.

[troutman6]

In case somebody shad ask, I like to use a 4 or 5 wt. rod. A 5 to 10' sink tip. You can buy the cortland kits to make up a loop to loop sink tip in case you only have a floater. Any color in Deer Creek is good as long as it's red over yellow marabou.

[uncle phill]

Any color in Deer Creek is good as long as it's red over yellow marabou.

Interesting, I've done very well there with standard Mickey Finns, 8-10, more so than with with white or yellow alone.