shad fishing

[tinyboatbigfish]

OK so I hope someone can help I wanna do shad fishing in the Indian Head river and want to use fly rod and fresh water rod what do I use for a fly and how would I rig up the shad darts and use I am new to this and hear its a lot of fun ant help would be great thanks sean

[Clammer]

it ain,t that easy

[WESTPORTMAFIA]

Not sure anytime I go for shad I use a freshwater set up and a tiny green deadly #^&#^&#^&#^& and have lots of fun. The rod is a custom1 piece 7ft noodle type rod.
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[niko]

2-3' leader of 10 pound flouro, light drag, darts or anything similar. not much to it. go easy on the hook set. you want the jig to tap bottom as it goes downstream. they put on a good show

[Raven]

let out line and let the shad drift down river aways
then slow retrieve back in... always worked for me

[Guppy]

Sounds like fun
Camped and trout fished the Indian Head when a kid, white tail being chaced by a hound dog almost landed on my head!

[piemma]

Years ago we use to fish the Great Island Bridge in the fall with 1/4oz Cast masters in silver and in gold. We would catch 1/2 a dozen and go up to the short wall at Georges and live line then. WOW!!!

Not sure it's legal to do nowadays.

[Nebe]

Swamp Yankee tarpon!
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[tlapinski]

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.

[Rappin Mikey]

That's what brings them cows home.

[Got Stripers]

Fished their decades ago and while I always used spinning gear, the approach I'm sure is similar, lightest weighed dart to tick the bottom and I never retreived. Back in those days, it was two men side by side, two more 25 feet below you and above you in the prime spots. Like Toby said they aren't feeding and when thick, they would be swirling all around you, running between your legs and every time someone would hook up the shout FISH ON and coming down or up followed as they ran like a mother.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by piemma

Years ago we use to fish the Great Island Bridge in the fall with 1/4oz Cast masters in silver and in gold. We would catch 1/2 a dozen and go up to the short wall at Georges and live line then. WOW!!!

Not sure it's legal to do nowadays.

You're talking about hickory shad, right? Tim Coleman used to talk about catching hickories on the GI bridge. Are they still there in the fall? I'll be camping for a few days at Fishermans memorial in Sepember...

[Guppy]

Fried shad roe, poor mans cavier,,,,

[WESTPORTMAFIA]

I was talking about Hickory
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[Sea of Atlas]

I have a lot of fun catching American shad before the stripers show in Maine...I use shad darts but also small jig heads with chartreuse crappie tubes which is cheap. That's a good thing because I'll lose a jig most trips due to bottom structure...I will swing drift them along the bottom.