Upper AR Shad 5/30/12

With my boat out of commission at the moment, my next best thing I got going is shad fishing on the AR. Oh darn have to fish for crazy hard fighting shad, haha. Got on the water around 1700 and third cast in I got and lost a fish. Right on can't argue with that. The low water conditions makes for improving on making it in the strike zone. Everyone is doing something different to get in the money zone. I found my pattern with a 1/16th jig head and just short jigging it to keep the jig up off of the bottom. I found most of my hits though straight out in front of me casting as far as I can. The hits would come within the first 2 seconds of my jig hitting the water.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

My first of the evening.

I had a shad newbie down on the water with me today my buddy Brian (Cogle). Had him set up with the grub, but he had a hard time getting the jig out far enough so I hooked him up with a shad dart and just told him to cast and retrieve real slow. Sure enough it didn't take long before he was hooked up.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Brian's first shad ever.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Before I gave him the shad dart he kept getting snagged and he caught something I had never seen before.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

He pulled some kind of bug larva on his hook. Never seen that one before.

My buddy Adam was down on the water today too ripping some lips.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

And he is hooked up again!

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Brian sticks another on the on the Dart

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

One of mine

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

I decided to keep a few for the smoker. I've had smoked shad before, but I've never done it before myself. Gonna try it and see how it turns out.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

2000 was rolling around I saw a few stripers running around and I don't have a bait shad yet! all of the fish have been pretty nice sized, but I can't get one under 16 inches. One guy down river gets one though and my dad hollered at me to come down and get it. Grabbed him hooked him up and started the waiting game again.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Left him out there from 2020-2100 for still nothing. I'm finally starting to see some striper activity in the evening time though so hopefully my time will come soon. Left around 2100, landed close to 10 fish. Not really sure I stopped counting after 5. Got home and I've got some decent fillets for the smoker.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

They're in the brine now, hopefully it will turn out well and wont be too boney.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark