American Shad

I spent Saterday chasing Shad on the fly. I got a late start and mid-day is the toughest time to try and get them going on a reservior. Finding them was easy enough but the bite didn't really take off until the afternoon evening, till almost dark.

With our late sporing this year, water temps are still a little cool at 62-64 on the surface and they are just stating to move shallow and school up. This is a unique oppertunity on the West Coast to catch land locked Shad. So the 2010 Shad run begins for me, and I should be able to milk a couple of weeks of good fishing both from boat and accessable shoreline/beaches on the lake. The bigger females move in after the smaller males most years. Right now there are thousands of males.

Pink crazy charlies are my favorite fly for lake Shad. They just dont respond to the traditional big bright colored Shad flies that we use on the rivers here for some reason. Spinning rods and small shad darts and grubs will catch a few but with the clear water I like 5X, small flies and a 5wt for this kind of fishing. Have a good holiday!