Arkansas Outdoors Online Forum

THE SHAD WERE COMING THROUGH

BY JOHN BERRY

Steve wanted to fish the shad kill. We talked about it on the phone and I explained to him that I could not pin down a precise date of when they would be coming through. The shad kill is a natural phenomenon and is caused by the nexus of cold temperatures and high levels of generation. I am unable to predict the weather or what the Corps of Engineers will do in the future. We booked a to be specified day in February. He sent me a check and I told him I would call him when the shad started coming through. Well the shad finally started coming through and I gave Steve a call. He was about to leave on a business trip and we had to settle on a date a few days later. For some inexplicable reason the shad did not come through for a few days. The trout continued to key in on shad patterns. The cold conditions and high levels of generation continued. Steve made it into town and gave me a call from the motel. We worked out the final details and I picked him up early the next day.

 

The temperature was below freezing when we got to the ramp. The sky was overcast and we had a bit of wind. They were running seven generators. That is a lot of water. I rigged a couple of rods for Steve before we launched. On his nine foot six weight rod I put on a fresh nine foot 4X leader with a two foot 4X tippet. I added a JB’s shad fly, an AAA split shot above the tippet knot and a medium thingamabobber (a big strike indicator). I rigged his nine foot five weight rod in a similar fashion, except that I used a cerise San Juan worm tied on a 1/32 ounce jig head.

 

We launched the boat and headed upstream to the dam. I saw my fellow guide, Ron Yarbrough, and I asked him what the hot fly was. He said that it was a shad pattern. I thanked him for the information and continued on. When we got near the dam we saw the gulls sitting near the outflow from the power house. It was obvious that some shad had come through earlier but none were coming out then. I set up a drift and Steve started fishing the shad pattern.

 

It took a couple of drifts before we picked up our first trout. It was a fat, healthy rainbow and it gave Steve a good fight. Halfway through the struggle Steve lost his footing and slipped. He recovered quickly and somehow maintained perfect tension on the fish during the entire struggle. The action was a bit slow but steady. We picked up some nice fish and broke off a monster. We stopped for lunch but didn’t dawdle. We were quickly back on the water.

 

Steve hooked up a big rainbow. As he was fighting it, the reel seat worked loose and the reel dropped off. Once again Steve prevailed against the odds. He maintained even pressure on the trout. He gently worked it toward the boat and I was able to net it. We took a minute to photograph Steve holding it and then carefully released it. I took a minute to carefully attach the reel to the six weight rod. About this time we drifted near Jimmy T (Traylor), a fellow guide. He pointed up to the gulls and called out that the shad were coming through. The gulls were busy working the surface of the water and moving slowly downstream. They were actively keying in on shad on the top of the water column.

 

We raced upstream toward the dam with gulls swarming around us. I set up a drift and we were into a nice rainbow almost immediately. We landed and released it and hooked up another. We released it and hooked up another. This one was quite a bit larger. It gave Steve much more of a struggle and eventually broke off. I feverishly rerigged Steve’s rod to return him to the action. While I was doing that, I had him fish with his other rod that was rigged with a San Juan worm. We got no takers on the worm. Once I had the rod ready, we switched back to the shad pattern. We were back in the action immediately. Once, while I was releasing a fish, I noticed a shad on the surface. I netted it and dropped it on the hatch of one of my boat lockers. I pulled out my camera and took a picture of it so that I could study it later. The bite continued non stop for about an hour and a half. The action slowed as quickly as it began. The gulls returned to their perch near the dam. The shad pattern continued to produce but at a much slower rate.

 

I looked around and noticed that there were many more boats fishing the Catch and Release section than before. I assume they had heard about the shad coming through and had come upstream to get in on the action. This included a couple of bass boats. Now I respect bass fishermen, but I wished that they would make their runs upstream a bit slower so as not to push a big wake. I know this is tough when you are sitting on a hundred and fifty or more horse power.

 

We fished a bit longer and Steve decided to pull the plug. He had accomplished his goal. He had caught the shad kill and landed some nice fish. He needed to head home. I took him back to the hotel and we said our good byes. I headed home myself and relished the heater in the Volvo. It had been a good day.