| NCC-TU Presents The 2020 Shad Report No. 5 Black is the New Orange May 10 , 2020 Remember shad fishing? We last reported on the goings on at Fletcher’s Cove exactly one month ago in the early days of the coronavirus shutdown. Concerning the shad run, not much has changed since. Were it not for more important things – a global crisis suffices – we would all be talking about the impact of strange weather on the run this year. April went into the books as one of the wettest and coolest ever recorded. No one I’ve talked to can remember mid-fifties water temperatures right up to the end of the month. And let’s not forget the two weeks of high water we just endured, or that other episode that knocked out a week in mid-April. Fortunately, shad are patient in their quest to spawn. Having been summoned up the Potomac early this year following a very warm winter, the fish have been waiting around for the right conditions ever since. All that has been missing is the trigger of normal spring weather. Around this time I usually write about the waning hickory shad run, and with it angler interest. This year it feels like we are just getting started and can still look forward to the peak. The week of April 20th was the first period of reliable catches along the Gordon’s Rock shoreline as the Potomac gradually cleared and dropped. I visited the area often, usually without a rod, and chatted with some of the regulars occupying all available spots (above). The action came in waves with plenty of downtime, much like you would expect three weeks earlier. Still, anglers were happy and several of them returned day after day. By the following Sunday, two weeks ago today, a temporary spike in water temps and much improved turbidity levels ignited the bite. A few persistent anglers got a brief peek at the peak of the hickory shad run. Alex Binsted went out in the afternoon to try for American shad and found some, including the beaut above, but it was hard to stay on those larger cousins when every cast produced a hickory shad. The river was rising two days later but the action was still crazy over at Gordon’s Rock for Chris Campo and Chris Schaupp. Then the run paused once again while the river rose to near minor flood stage level at Little Falls and crested last Sunday. Good fishing will resume this week – probably great fishing. The view of the river above shows the elevated flow and turbidity, along with new flood debris, that I found on a visit yesterday. My arrival to Gordon's Rock spooked a great blue heron but the shoreline was otherwise empty. Out in the river a cormorant struggled to swallow a rather large hickory shad. Yes, I thought, the shad are still around. I measured the water temperature because the readings on the Little Falls gauge have been out since Tuesday – it was a mere 56 degrees. Our cold water woes will be over after this week. Later, Schaupp and his daughter Sarah (below) arrived for a quick visit and caught six hickories under the duress of the worse wind chill I have ever experienced here in May. You could only see about a foot down in the water but shad were eager enough. Murky water will persist for several days as the river drops, conditions similar to three weeks ago when fishing was reasonably good. Joe Fletcher taught us as teenagers to use orange or copper colored shad darts when the river was muddy. Those darts were always painted with black heads. A few years ago my son Alex half-dipped chartreuse shad killers in black paint and this seemed to improve our luck with American shad when turbidity levels were up. I called them “chocolate dipped” and also had Alex tie a few flies with black heads. This year I wanted to see if some old all-black darts in my box would work even better. When others around me on the shoreline were catching and I wasn’t, I put on a black dart with black tail and promptly took a hickory on the first cast. The color kept producing and fishing improved even more when I lightened the weight of my rig. I had observed from others that the shad were high in the water column. When the sun went down behind the Virginia wall, the action slowed. Here’s my conclusion: When the sun illuminates the sediment particles in murky to muddy water, black contrasts better than any other color choice. Black is more important than orange. Including a black tail may improve your chances even more. Don’t fish too deep under these conditions because the fish are either not down there or can’t see your offering. In fairness, other anglers were catching shad on conventional colors and spoons during my experiment, but my own luck changed significantly. For a related story, see our 2018 Shad Report regarding the huge American shad that Duncan McGrath took on a black tube while fishing for smallmouth. Encounters with ospreys are a favorite feature of the shad season and the Shad Report. Last time we showed an osprey peacefully munching on a gizzard shad in the Palisades neighborhood. This time our story takes on a more ominous, Hitchcockian tone. Lois Boland, the iron lady of shad fishing, had noticed an osprey swoop quite close to her on Gordon’s Rock a few weeks back, perhaps like that early scene with Tippi Hedren in The Birds . Then, on April 24, she was attacked by an osprey while landing a shad. Of course, the fierce raptor was after her fish and let’s not make this out to be the telephone booth scene. Still, Lois says the experience was very scary. The intruder became ensnared in fishing line, but with the help of two others, was soon free to dive again. You must read Lois’s retelling of the event from “The Osprey Incident,” an email subject line I won’t soon forget: “ You seemed interested in details of the osprey incident . . . there was another guy involved, whose name I do not know; he was wearing yellow rain pants at the time. He was slightly upstream from Chuck Eloshway and helped me subdue and untangle the osprey while Chuck held up his rod and line to minimize further entanglements. We put Chuck's spare rain pants over the osprey's head and I untangled the line from the right wing and head and "yellow rain pants" and I worked together to get the line and darts untangled from his talons. One dart was slightly embedded in his left talon but came out easily and then we just had to "unlace" the two leaders from his two talons. It was certainly a team effort. Once we got the osprey untangled, he was, obviously, dazed and confused and quite wet. He kind of rolled onto his back in the water, then righted himself and somehow made his way to the bank/rocks a couple of feet away, hesitated for a bit, glared at all of us, then gathered himself up and flew off. It was pretty amazing.” Enjoy the restart of the shad run this week and the rest of May, albeit under the social distancing restrictions currently in place. Please stay safe along the river. We hope to have great news about American shad next time but these mighty fish have always been best pursued by boat. Fletchers Boathouse remains closed but is preparing for a possible opening by the end of the month. That will require NPS to reopen the parking lots for Fletcher’s Cove, something kayakers are no doubt begging for. (The aforementioned Chris Schaupp took his son Max out in a canoe two weeks ago after wheeling it down Reservoir Road from a parking space – take a look below to see that it was worth it.) Fear not, this year’s shad run could continue well into June. The Boathouse wants you to know that when boats become available there will be fewer of them on the water to prevent dock overcrowding. Also, they ask that you purchase fishing licenses online as none will be available at the shop. Mark Binsted VP, NCC-TU Join Us! Visit our website |
Remember shad fishing? We last reported on the goings on at Fletcher’s Cove exactly one month ago in the early days of the coronavirus shutdown. Concerning the shad run, not much has changed since. Were it not for more important things – a global crisis suffices – we would all be talking about the impact of strange weather on the run this year. April went into the books as one of the wettest and coolest ever recorded. No one I’ve talked to can remember mid-fifties water temperatures right up to the end of the month. And let’s not forget the two weeks of high water we just endured, or that other episode that knocked out a week in mid-April. Fortunately, shad are patient in their quest to spawn. Having been summoned up the Potomac early this year following a very warm winter, the fish have been waiting around for the right conditions ever since. All that has been missing is the trigger of normal spring weather. | |
Around this time I usually write about the waning hickory shad run, and with it angler interest. This year it feels like we are just getting started and can still look forward to the peak. The week of April 20th was the first period of reliable catches along the Gordon’s Rock shoreline as the Potomac gradually cleared and dropped. I visited the area often, usually without a rod, and chatted with some of the regulars occupying all available spots (above). The action came in waves with plenty of downtime, much like you would expect three weeks earlier. Still, anglers were happy and several of them returned day after day. | |
By the following Sunday, two weeks ago today, a temporary spike in water temps and much improved turbidity levels ignited the bite. A few persistent anglers got a brief peek at the peak of the hickory shad run. Alex Binsted went out in the afternoon to try for American shad and found some, including the beaut above, but it was hard to stay on those larger cousins when every cast produced a hickory shad. The river was rising two days later but the action was still crazy over at Gordon’s Rock for Chris Campo and Chris Schaupp. Then the run paused once again while the river rose to near minor flood stage level at Little Falls and crested last Sunday. | |
Good fishing will resume this week – probably great fishing. The view of the river above shows the elevated flow and turbidity, along with new flood debris, that I found on a visit yesterday. My arrival to Gordon's Rock spooked a great blue heron but the shoreline was otherwise empty. Out in the river a cormorant struggled to swallow a rather large hickory shad. Yes, I thought, the shad are still around. I measured the water temperature because the readings on the Little Falls gauge have been out since Tuesday – it was a mere 56 degrees. Our cold water woes will be over after this week. Later, Schaupp and his daughter Sarah (below) arrived for a quick visit and caught six hickories under the duress of the worse wind chill I have ever experienced here in May. You could only see about a foot down in the water but shad were eager enough. | |
Murky water will persist for several days as the river drops, conditions similar to three weeks ago when fishing was reasonably good. Joe Fletcher taught us as teenagers to use orange or copper colored shad darts when the river was muddy. Those darts were always painted with black heads. A few years ago my son Alex half-dipped chartreuse shad killers in black paint and this seemed to improve our luck with American shad when turbidity levels were up. I called them “chocolate dipped” and also had Alex tie a few flies with black heads. This year I wanted to see if some old all-black darts in my box would work even better. When others around me on the shoreline were catching and I wasn’t, I put on a black dart with black tail and promptly took a hickory on the first cast. The color kept producing and fishing improved even more when I lightened the weight of my rig. I had observed from others that the shad were high in the water column. When the sun went down behind the Virginia wall, the action slowed. | |
Here’s my conclusion: When the sun illuminates the sediment particles in murky to muddy water, black contrasts better than any other color choice. Black is more important than orange. Including a black tail may improve your chances even more. Don’t fish too deep under these conditions because the fish are either not down there or can’t see your offering. In fairness, other anglers were catching shad on conventional colors and spoons during my experiment, but my own luck changed significantly. For a related story, see our 2018 Shad Report regarding the huge American shad that Duncan McGrath took on a black tube while fishing for smallmouth. | |
Encounters with ospreys are a favorite feature of the shad season and the Shad Report. Last time we showed an osprey peacefully munching on a gizzard shad in the Palisades neighborhood. This time our story takes on a more ominous, Hitchcockian tone. Lois Boland, the iron lady of shad fishing, had noticed an osprey swoop quite close to her on Gordon’s Rock a few weeks back, perhaps like that early scene with Tippi Hedren in The Birds. Then, on April 24, she was attacked by an osprey while landing a shad. Of course, the fierce raptor was after her fish and let’s not make this out to be the telephone booth scene. Still, Lois says the experience was very scary. The intruder became ensnared in fishing line, but with the help of two others, was soon free to dive again. You must read Lois’s retelling of the event from “The Osprey Incident,” an email subject line I won’t soon forget: | |
“You seemed interested in details of the osprey incident . . . there was another guy involved, whose name I do not know; he was wearing yellow rain pants at the time. He was slightly upstream from Chuck Eloshway and helped me subdue and untangle the osprey while Chuck held up his rod and line to minimize further entanglements. We put Chuck's spare rain pants over the osprey's head and I untangled the line from the right wing and head and "yellow rain pants" and I worked together to get the line and darts untangled from his talons. One dart was slightly embedded in his left talon but came out easily and then we just had to "unlace" the two leaders from his two talons. It was certainly a team effort. Once we got the osprey untangled, he was, obviously, dazed and confused and quite wet. He kind of rolled onto his back in the water, then righted himself and somehow made his way to the bank/rocks a couple of feet away, hesitated for a bit, glared at all of us, then gathered himself up and flew off. It was pretty amazing.” | |
Enjoy the restart of the shad run this week and the rest of May, albeit under the social distancing restrictions currently in place. Please stay safe along the river. We hope to have great news about American shad next time but these mighty fish have always been best pursued by boat. Fletchers Boathouse remains closed but is preparing for a possible opening by the end of the month. That will require NPS to reopen the parking lots for Fletcher’s Cove, something kayakers are no doubt begging for. (The aforementioned Chris Schaupp took his son Max out in a canoe two weeks ago after wheeling it down Reservoir Road from a parking space – take a look below to see that it was worth it.) Fear not, this year’s shad run could continue well into June. The Boathouse wants you to know that when boats become available there will be fewer of them on the water to prevent dock overcrowding. Also, they ask that you purchase fishing licenses online as none will be available at the shop. | |
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