| tlapinski |
05-07-2014 09:04 AM |
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I would assume that you are referring to American shad, not hickory shad, as targeting the two in location as well as method is quite different. Hickory shad can be targeted in the salt with small jigs or tins and they will ready feed on your offering. American shad, on the other hand, are not feeding when they strike but are doing so out of anger. I grew up in Western Massachusetts fishing for American shad every spring on the CT River. I literally spent hundreds of hours each spring targeting them.
Targeting them is somewhat unique in that they are not actually feeding when they are hooked. Being filter-feeders, mimicking naturally-occurring baits found in the river will not tempt a shad to bite. Instead, the trick is to bump them in the nose and make them mad enough to bite your offering. Some days this is far easier than others! Two standard lures are used; the willow leaf and the aptly named shad dart. The willow leaf is a small, un-weighted spoon that flutters in the current. Wile they are available in many different colors, gold or silver are most often used. Some sort of weight, usually a few split-shot, is added a foot or so above the lure to assist casting. The willow leaf sees more use in the slower running stretches of the Massachusetts sections of the river on down into Connecticut; I was never able to figure out why it was far more popular to the south than darts.
The other standard lure, the shad dart, is essentially a small bucktail jig painted in bright, contrasting colors with matching deer-hair tail. Every shad angler has his preferred color pattern; mine is either a dark-purple head with light/purple body or fluorescent green head with a chartreuse body. Red and white is also very popular, but I never had great success on that pattern despite anglers all around me hooking up on it at times.
Most anglers fishing from shore use spinning rods in the six-foot range spooled with six- to eight-pound mono or 15-pound braided line. When using braid, a length of monofilament should be added to make changing of darts or willow leafs easier. Some time in the mid-90s I noticed a fellow angler using a rod that was much longer than was commonly seen. I inquired as to his rod choice and discovered he was using a nine-foot noodle rod. I immediately ran out and bought one of my own and my success went through the roof. Not only did the rod better cushion my line when a shad made a blistering run, I was now able to keep my rod tip out in front of my fellow down-current anglers when I stood in a picket line of fishermen. After a short time it became a common sight to see the majority of anglers also employing salmon rods.
Until last week it had been a few years since I last targeted shad on the CT River, but little had changed and I ended up landing half a dozen fish. Here is a little buck from the outing.
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