Techniques for American Shad

[release]

Anyone willing to share thier experience in targetting American shad. I know there are fewer of them and they generally come up the potomac later but i only get a few so cannot say if there are techniques that produce relatively more Americans. Fish slower and deeper? Us smaller darts? Any help here?

Release

[CaptMikeStarrett]

Catch twenty hickory first ...

It is a numbers game as far I can figure it out. Perhaps somebody has more insight.

Capt Mike

[goose70]

My expereince at Fletchers: S-l-o-w and near the bottom. By slow, sometimes I just let the dart sit in the current. Several years ago, small, white & pink darts worked for me. Last year, larger, chart darts worked just fine.

[release]

thanks goose 70 anyone else?

[Salmo trutta]

Cast out from a boat with full sinking line and then put the rod down. Let it sit. Do something else. Hickories will grab it but so will Americans when they are around.

Most White shad regulars fish one or two spinning rods at a time simultaneously vertically jigging them off the bottom with a heavy enough dart to keep it near the bottom.

I tend to find smaller flies catch more American (aka white) shad. Although, I have not caught many. This is mostly from hearing from other regulars or friends etc. I got lucky and figured out the fly rod approach of letting it sit in the rod holder one day last year but also heard that is a popular method at one TU meeting I went to this winter.

[TAILWALKER]

Low and slow for sure. They love to hug the bottom usually in a depression used as a current break and prefer deeper water. I find they love overcast or rainy days which will bring them a little higher up in the water column. This year on the James my two sons and I have caught at least 50 whites and several were over 7lbs. I really don't like to target them too much any more after catching a few as they are a much more fragile fish than a hickory and I've noticed steadily declining numbers over the past 2 years. Since you are usually fishing with a much slower retrieve they tend to get hooked deeper and the way their mouth is structured their gills come further up in the throat so if you gill hook one and you've pretty much killed it. The day we caught the most was on an overcast and rainy day like I mentioned and we were not even targeting them, they just moved in and kind of took over the hole that we were fishing.

In years past when I used to target them I could get in a hole and catch them repeatedly and had days with 50+ whites. As long as you smash the barb you have a better chance of not hurting them unless you put a lot of pressure on them at which time their weak gills will tear loose.

I also find they like a few specific colors over others and I have not noticed any trend with smaller or larger flies or darts, etc. I fish a 7.5 inch per second sinking line with a very heavy fly and once I've located them it's one fish after another.

[billx8]

It is mostly a waste of time as there aren't very many caught. Rarely there will be a nice spurt of them. I second the above. If they are around and you want to target them, fish deep with a small fly.

[release]

thanks all. Interesting that they seem to prefer smaller baits than hickorys that are much smaller.

[bigjim5589]

I caught one several years ago on a 1/4 oz spinnerbait while bass fishing. Not what I would call small.

The previous advice is the ticket, near the bottom & slow. I tie my own flies on size 4 2X or 3X long shank hooks. I use cheap gold plated carlisle style hooks a lot. Any long shank hook will work. I prefer long shank hooks as I don't seem to gut hook as many. That makes the fly about 1 1/4 to to 2 1/4 inches long, and I've had the most luck with chartreuse, orange & pink or combos of these. I usually tie them with beadheads, plastic or metal, and weighted, but I also tie some with leadeyes to invert the hook.

I do the same for Hickories, but primarily use size 6 hooks for my flies.

Both will hit either size fly sometimes.

I went & checked the length on my flies, they're longer than I thought, so I edited the post.

I have some pics of various flies for both Hickories & Americans. Here's the links!

<a href="http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/?action=view&current=shadflies003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/shadflies003.jpg" border="0" alt="Shad Flies"></a>

<a href="http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/?action=view&current=shadflies011.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/shadflies011.jpg" border="0" alt="Flash Flies, Clouser Minnow Style"></a>

<a href="http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/?action=view&current=shadflies008.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/shadflies008.jpg" border="0" alt="New Shad Flies"></a>

<a href="http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/?action=view&current=shadflies007.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/shadflies007.jpg" border="0" alt="More Shad Flies"></a>

<a href="http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/?action=view&current=shadflies005.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u174/bigjim5589/shadflies005.jpg" border="0" alt="Tube Shad fly"></a>