Jump to content
Fly Tying
Sign in to follow this  
Poopdeck

Non-fly rod caught fish

Recommended Posts

Nice shad, Poopdeck. I haven't fished for American shad in years. Did a lot of fishing for them off the wing dam at New Hope/Lambertville with spinning tackle before I took up fly fishing. Caught a few, but my best luck with them was on the Upper Delaware above Hancock using a fly rod. The shallower water up there improves their acrobatic performance, even caught a couple on dry flies while fishing for trout. As far as eating them, we've got the cook'em on a cedar plank, when done throw away the fish and eat the plank story up here to. I tried shad once, even stuffing it and baking it didn't help. They're bony on top of it. The shad roe is another story, dusted with seasoned flour and fried in butter it's excellent. On a historic note, the spring shad run up the Schuylkill River is credited with helping Washington's Army recover from the winter at Valley Forge. The run faded out after they started building dams on the river. Over the last 15 or so years, several of the old dams were removed and others have had fish ladders added and both American Shad and Striped Bass are starting to return to the river to spawn.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Some shad stuff for interested insomniacs:
http://www.workshopoftheworld.com/resources/shad_timeline.html

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/shad-wars-a-long-violent-period-in-lancaster-county-over/article_48c6e18a-3281-11e8-bbdd-c3310badc12c.html

https://www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/SHAD.HTM
===============================================
http://www.potomacriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/PotomacShadSchoolsUpdate2015.pdf


The American shad was once remarkably, even outstandingly,
abundant in the Potomac River.
From Spencer F. Baird, left, first Director of the US Fish
Commission*, in their report for 1886:

No better illustration of the numbers in which anadromous fish
enter the rivers can be given.... than a presentation of the case
as it relates to the Potomac River in the short distance between
its mouth and the Great Falls
of the Potomac, only twelve miles
above Washington.”
An estimated 22,500,000 shad (110,000,000 lbs) were harvested
from the Potomac River in 1832
.
“Approximately 995,000 barrels of salt were used to cure them
.”
That many barrels would make a pyramid with a base the size of
a football field from goalpost to goalpost and a height of 298‘.
One barrel of salt used to make 5 barrels of shad/herring, so ∆ is
5X as large)

====================================

https://www.potomacriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PotomacShadHistory201203.pdf

Amongst the other shad stuff this paper tells of George Washington paying the equivalent of $30 per shad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One of my friends and I were fishing from the boat ramp on Shohola Reservoir up in the Poconos. Being the purist I was using my fly rod and he being a newbie, took up fishing when he retired, was using a bobber and a worm. These pictures show what happens when you do that.

 

post-309-0-79036100-1527301248_thumb.jpg

 

then the rest of the clan showed up.

 

post-309-0-73223900-1527301288_thumb.jpg

 

 

Since I was fishing the righteous way

 

I caught this one.

 

post-309-0-21287700-1527301423_thumb.jpg

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I hit the river in Trenton for stripers again. Last time out, which seems like weeks ago, I caught one 15". Wait! It was weeks ago because it's been raining for weeks. Today 22 in the boat and 8 almost in the boat. They were 22 to 27.5". Not cows but boy do they fight hard in river current with the hard pull of an outgoing tide. The bigest would have been a little over 30" was one of the ones that got away. I tried to make this a fly fishing report but when my buddy went up 3 fish I abandoned the fly rod for a spinning rod. The current and an outgoing tide just made flyfishing less then enjoyable as did the blanking I was taking. Also had a catfish and a SMB so it was a good day out.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...