American River Shad Fishing

[winxp_man]

6-7 WT rod and matching reel. As for the line I used a integrated sinktip by Rio. It a 250 grain type 6 sink tip on it. The issue is that if the flows are above about 2500 if you don't have a faster sinking line you will not get one fish at all.

I'm living proof of that. I got to the river about 6:00 pm one of my fishing afternoons. I got into the bucket I fished most of the time and between two other fly fishermen. My first cast boom fish my second cast boom fish.... Well the guy on the left of me was just amazed because both of them have been on the river since late morning and only six fish.

I ended fishing till about 9 pm with 27 fish caught and trying to help out the guys around me hahaha. I asked them to see what they were using well the were only using a 10-12' sink tip and only type 3-4 cant remember right. For shad you have to get down in the river bottom. Most of the time I was able to feel the bottom bumping here and there. then as the evening comes up you can actually get some at the top too.

The fix with a faster sinking line is easy just cast down river and shorter and you will get them at the top because the line will not sink that fast to where it passes up the fish. If you want to catch shad its not that hard on the fly rod if you know how to cast. But if you want to have fun and catch a bunch you will have to know a few things

Hope some of this helps

PS both of the fellers on both sides of me only got about 6 fish each not that they didnt know how to cast but wrong tools for the job.

[winxp_man]

I landed a 9.7 pound 29 inch striper on my 7 weight and it never took me to the reel. A 42 inch may be possible.

NICE

I just don't know if what I was using would make it work. I use size 10 down to 12 for shad. But I did just finish tying a nasty little minnow imitation I will post as soon as I can.

I will be hunting some stripers here real soon

[Curley Red]

Scottie, I used mostly a type 3 shooting head with amensia for a running line. I use shooting heads because depending on the flows you might need to change depths.

Shad are pretty much done for the year unless you have a boat and can move around a lot to find the few that might still be in the system.

[Scottie15]

Shad are pretty much done for the year unless you have a boat and can move around a lot to find the few that might still be in the system.

Agreed. I stopped heading out a few weeks ago when they started spawning. If I'm spending time in my boat now, it'll be chasing salmon !

With shooting heads, are you switching out just the head, or do you swap reels to one with a different weight head? Do you use split shot on your leader and a shad fly, or just the fly?

Making my gear 'need' list for next season...

[Curley Red]

I just swap out heads. They are connected by loop to loop, takes about a minute to switch heads.

You know now is a great time for big stripers in the "A" as well.

[winxp_man]

I just swap out heads. They are connected by loop to loop, takes about a minute to switch heads.

You know now is a great time for big stripers in the "A" as well.

Shooting heads are way cheaper then the integrated crap! Can you still get lower weight shooting heads? I know Rio makes them only from 8 wt and up.