TR: Columbia Shad

Well, this was a tough outing. My son Glen and I left home late
morning a couple days ago, and drove to North Bonneville in hopes of
finding some shad. We fumbled around a bit, and then found a local who
was fishing for squawfish. He gets $4 to $6 for these fish, and has
made as much as $600 in a single night a couple years ago. He also
fishes shad, and told us to fish right up at the dam where we'd find
other folks.

Sure enough, they were there. The water was intimidating. No other
fly fishermen in sight, but the spinning gear had brought in great
numbers of shad. Several people left with coolers litterally full of
fish. They's kept 20 or 30 apiece in an afternoon's fishing. All said
the bite was off as it got late, and we didn't manage anything more
than a 10 inch smallie and one long line release of a shad.

That night we tied up some "shad darts" which aren't darts at all, but
a simple fly described on the Game Department webiste:
http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/...d_columbia.htm

In the morning we set out in the rain to try again. The fish were
hitting the spin fishermen's darts, but we couldn't get far enough out,
or deep enough to catch more than 3 shad. I missed a couple, and we
each managed to snag a sturgeon. Those fish are huge, 8 or 9 feet
long, bigger in the belly than me, and not particularly concerned with
a fly stuck in a fin. I managed to thump the rod and pull hard enough
to get the fish's attention, and he turned upstream and wandered out
deep. Once he had a bunch of backing I decided I'd better abandon
this, so I increased the drag and broke him off. I don't know if these
fish can be induced to take an unscented fly, but if they can, I'm sure
this is one use for those 14wt rods.

I really don't know what we were doing wrong. 8wt rods, full sinking or
T200 shooting heads, 3x leaders, many different flies that are called
shad flies. I bet a place with more room for a back cast would help.
I was limited to about 60 feet, and Glen was casting more like 50 into
a fairly stiff wind. We got down fairly well, 10 or 15 feet I imagine,
and near the end of the swing the flies caught in the rocks. All the
takes were about half way through the swing.

Is this what shad fishing is like, or should I try it again in a
different place or with different flies?

Chas
remove fly fish to reply
http://home.comcast.net/~chas.wade/w...ome.html-.html
San Juan Pictures at:
http://home.comcast.net/~chasepike/wsb/index.html