I swore I wasn’t going to let it happen to me again, so here’s a gentle reminder that the “Silver Surfer” runs are approaching with as much vigor as your Trout Opener..
It’s the same vicious ritual each year, you focus on refilling the missing trout bugs from last season preparing for the Opener, then a couple weeks after your return some ne’er do well calls with, “Dude, Shad. Go Now!”
Light water years always seem to come by surprise. Water managers claim victory in December, then little falls from January through April and everyone realizes another dry years’ ahead. Water flows dictate migration, and less water means miserly flows and makes the “window” of prime conditions all the shorter.
Trout season in California is the last Saturday in April, and in a dry year the Shad may already be in the rivers – taking “second fiddle” to the horde of trout fishermen intent on feats of prowess. Given an early start to Shad, you may have driven by better fishing enroute to your mountain adventure.
Flies are simple and easy to tie – allowing free license to purge your fly tying kit of all the underused fluorescent materials that settled near the bottom. American Shad are plankton eaters with a yen for anything bright within striking distance – that attraction has never been explained, and us fishermen have never questioned a “gift horse” too closely.
I love fishing for these bony SOB’s – they’re plentiful, fight well, and are one the few species where a good day might mean 50 or 100 fish – enough to yield blisters. Local fishermen occasionally strip the females and smoke the skeins of roe – but I didn’t find the flavor compelling enough to want to thump any, it’s a big sardine, oily and full of bones, so you toss them back as fast as you land them.
I’m liable to get a few looks – what with my waders drying on the coat rack in my office, but with the river only 5 minutes away – I should be able to explain my obsession convincingly. It’s last week’s sandwich aging not so gracefully in the vest that’ll earn my banishment from the premises..
East coast fishermen are facing closures this year, so check your regulations, I think Chesapeake Bay, and NY state has closed the Hudson River as well.
Technorati Tags: american shad, gaudy flies, flourescent
Hudson is C&R only for recreational purposes…but they are still allowing some commercial fishing, which is strange.
I was really looking at trying to get some this year, but with so many other viable options for fish that aren’t having such a tough time out here right now, I’ll leave my hooks out of them for now. Hopefully there will still be a chance down the road at some point.
Do you consider the transplanted stripers and shad somewhat “invasive” species out there? Just curious…I would think they must have displaced native fish to some extent. We may have to head west to catch them in the future if things keep going as they have. Maybe California was the contingency plan for east-coast-extinctions all along. Free some more of those penned atlantic salmon and we’ll be in business.
I love fishing seasonal species. I think it is a nod back to the old hunter gatherer thing where a change in season indicated a change in abundance.
Eoc
FH – as soon as I removed the hyperlink the comment became visible, some setting on the blog software is the culprit, I’ll see if I can find it.
Stripers and Shad have been here for more than 100 years, so other than Southern California water managers insisting they’re the reason for the salmon decline, they’re not considered an invasive species.
Fishermen only object to species that don’t fight well or they can’t eat …
I’m with “enemyofcarp” – especially with migratory fish, it’s seasonal so take advantage of the opportunity, and the resident fish can wait a bit and recoup (we’ll get to them shortly..)