# St. Johns Shad double up



## Ron_W. (Dec 14, 2006)

Launched at the St.Johns at 7:30am and headed to my first spot. The birds and fish were active and it didn't take long to see the bite was on. I was out for shad and put out the first of two rods to start my trolling. Before I could get the secound pair of jigs in the water the first rod bowed over in the holder. I got the fish about 3/4 of the way to the boat when it jumped and threw the jig. I got both rods out and started the trolling run again. I didn't make it 50 yards when both rods bowed over. I troll with a pair of jigs on each rod and as I cranked in the first rod I found a fish on both jigs, the secound rod also came in with two shad on it so that was 4 fish in the boat with in the first 100 yards.

With the bite hot I figured it was a good day to try for shad on the fly rod. I anchored up and broke out the fly rod. With a sinking line I had no trouble getting the fly down in the 10 foot depths and soon picked up a big Bluegill. I could not seem to get the right presintation for the shad which I think were hanging in the upper half of the water collumn. After trying 5 different flys I decided the retieve speed needed to be faster but I could not strip fast enough until I pulled anchor and moved out into the current with the trolling motor. Keeping the boat moveing foward with the troller did the trick and I picked up two bucks on on the fly rod. I changed reels and put on a floating line. That didn't do the trick either so I went back to the spin tackle. Casting and retrieveing jigs didn't get a quick response either but I managed to collect 4 more shad and got a shot at a couple small bass that were chaseing minnows. Every time I moved I put my jigs out to troll and every pass back through the productive area produced multiple fish trolling the same lures I was casting.

I finished up the afternoon trolling a couple hours scoreing over 25 shad for the day and ending up at 4pm with a fish on both rods.

First two of the Double double.




















Shad on the fly



















Medium size roe shad. One of only about 4 females I caught today.











If you have thought about going shad fishing in east central florida give it a try before the end of march. This looks to be the strongest run in years and the river from Sanford to Puzzle lake/Econ river area should hold good numbers of fish migrateing up stream. These fish will strike small minnow imatateing lures that can be trolled at 2 to 3 mph. Speck jigs work well in the 1/8 and 1/16 oz size tied in a two jig tandem rig. The baits should run from 3 to 7 feet deep. Bring a veriety of colors as the shad can be choosey. There have been a lot of smaller than useual 10 to 12 inch male shad but the larger females can run up to several pounds. Light tackle is good for this type of work.


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## tom_in_orl (Dec 9, 2006)

Awesome report. I spend all day siting in the stands at Daytona wondering who was fishing. ;D


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## aaronshore (Aug 24, 2007)

Try a Crazy Charlie or a Gotcha tied on a #6 or #8 with an orange wing. Also a 2 handed strip works well for a quick retrieve. What weight fly rod were you using?


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## Ron_W. (Dec 14, 2006)

> Try a Crazy Charlie or a Gotcha tied on a #6 or #8 with an orange wing. Also a 2 handed strip works well for a quick retrieve. What weight fly rod were you using?


I was fishing a 6wt with my old sinking line thats 200 grain I think. I started with a bead eye #8 maribou and flashabou streamer but it sank to fast. I got the shad on a maribou and pearl mylar # 10 unweighted streamer. Experimenting thru the day the fish were hitting larger jigs 2 to 2 1/2 inches better although they do have small mouths. I did have some larger streamers but all were pretty heavily weighted. The boat traffic got pretty heavy so fly casting rooms became a problem. Keeping the fly at about a steady 4 foot depth seemed to be the right number for this trip.


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## phishphood (Dec 15, 2006)

Hey Ron, are shad any good on the table?


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## Ron_W. (Dec 14, 2006)

Shad are not much good for eating being boney and oily. The cracker tradition is to remove the females egg sacks and fry them in bacon grease. It's probably been 35 years since I ate any but is there anything that doesn't taste good fried with bacon.

I'd just as soon release them as they are on there spawning run after swimming all the way up to the north Atlantic and back to the river to breed.


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## phishphood (Dec 15, 2006)

Bacon is my favorite food group.


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

eatin' high on the hog ain't bad either.


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## TomFL (Oct 2, 2007)

> Hey Ron, are shad any good on the table?


Shad recipe: Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil. Add 1/2 cup of each of the following: minced garlic, oregano, onions and celery. Add 4 shad fillets and an old shoe. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20 minutes. 

Throw out the shad and eat the shoe. ;D

-T


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## Apollobeachsam (Dec 14, 2006)

Over in the west coast .. they love using Chad dead sticking for Tarpon.

And shad spot in Tampa is like super top secret.. LOL


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