Being new to salt water fishing....I am getting desperate to start fishing...and catching something, anything. I guess I should go after some hold-overs to quench my need for fish, but I was curious if anyone fishes for shad.

If I understand correctly, shad should be arriving soon to spawn. I know they make great table fare, and the roe is highly desireable, but I just want to catch and release. I just want to fish....and catch.....

Anyone have any advice? Tips for tackle, tactics, reading material, maybe even some suggeted locations - not specifics, just ideas.

-IWK

Being new to salt water fishing....I am getting desperate to start fishing...and catching something, anything. I guess I should go after some hold-overs to quench my need for fish, but I was curious if anyone fishes for shad.

If I understand correctly, shad should be arriving soon to spawn. I know they make great table fare, and the roe is highly desireable, but I just want to catch and release. I just want to fish....and catch.....

Anyone have any advice? Tips for tackle, tactics, reading material, maybe even some suggeted locations - not specifics, just ideas.

-IWK

The shad's arrival date seems to have a lot of influences and everyone has an opinion as to what the most important one is. Water temps, the moon, tides, I've heard it all. Biologists have told me 50 is the magic number but I have caught them when water temps were in the low 40's. By the calender, at least on my river, I've never seen them earlier then April 2nd. Many years, approximately a month after the herring arrive, the shad arrive. Old timers say when the shad bu$h blooms, the shad are in the rivers. When the forsythia blooms, the big roe shad have arrived. I've never noticed any coorelation though...

All the shad rivers seem to have preferred lures, and almost any color will have it's day, but as a rule chartreuse and green chartreuse seem to work everywhere. Shad darts, at least on the river I fish have always done the best. On the Connecticut River I know people fish some darts as heavy as an ounce, I've always done best with a 1/64th dart on my river though. I've had limited success with shad spoons.

I like to put a tail on all my darts, and it's always pearl flashabou. If you watch shad swimming in the lifts, you'll see them occasionally snap at random debris floating by. They almost always snap at a shad scale drifting by though, and pearl flashabou has the color of a shad scale. So I always use it.

Getting what ever you offer into the shad's face is VERY important, shad generally don't go out of their way to attack something. I have a few spots on my river where you can see the fish as they move and also when they take your offering, so I've spent a lot of time watching them. They definitely don't hang only at the bottom as most people will tell you, or only in heavy current. I do usually start fishing deep and then come up though. Find where they are at, it seems to change often. As soon as the bite stops, start changing depths and colors. Use split shot to tailor the depth of your dart. A split shot will also help keep mung off your dart; many of the rivers have debris from spring rains and blooming trees floating in them.

For tackle 5 and 6 weights and light spin rigs are the best. A soft action rod and a smooth drag are nice, certain parts of a shad's mouth are paper thin and tear easily. Lighter line is almost always better, most people feel shad can see very well. With that giant eye it seems possible. For mono most go with 4 to 8 pound test.

I think that's some pretty sage advice Pete. As an aside, where I used to fish for them I would always look for places where the water necked down to a tighter area and the fish were concentrated the most or "backed up" which goes along with your point about "showing" as many fish the dart as possible. Good Luck, I wish I was there catching them-
G.L.

Hickory shad love anything that's glittery.

So if you can get some light jigheads (1/8 oz tops!) with some rubber bodies that have glitter in them, you should be set. Bright colors also help (yellow, chartreuse) but in clear water they've been known to eat dark colors too (root beer). Very small tins like kastmasters for snapper blues are great too.

Use 10-15 lb. test fluoro leader for best results.

-WW

p.s. hickory shad and roe are delicious breaded and fried. The meat is just a little bony, though. Fabulous striper bait too.

Guys,
FWIW, it is, or will be illegal to keep American shad in RI's marine district.

We're talking about Americans. Similar, but different animal. They're not as ruthless as Hicks.