Fishing Log

Knowing all that rain would not stain or raise river today, I slept in to miss the worst of the rain and wind. Started wading N of water gap 11:30 and it was a shad every other cast for first 30 minutes landing 6, 5 were nice roe up to 4lbs - all on 1/32 ounce chartreuse green dart and UV green tail, 30 inches of 8# floro behind a 1/4 ounce in-line sinker attached to a 9' 6" G Loomis noodle road with a Pflueger President XT reel spooled with 5# Powerpro braid. The next hour landed 7 more now at 13 for 13 no bumps or missed hits. Hung in for one more hour quitting at 2pm ending up going 2 for 3 that last hour. So overall - 15 of 16 hookups and no other hits in 3.5 hours. Started out great but tapered out the more I fished. River crystal clear and not yet rising but tomorrow will be roiled up for sure. My hands and feet were frozen it was barely 49-50 degrees out and raining most of the time although not too hard, and water temp back down to 50-51... COLD but man what fish were there crushed it hard and very aggressive. Like I said no bumps every fish was hooked good.

@ShadHarris-you are very correct that flatheads take a huge fill in adult shad. Below Conowingo the guys that keep them say there are 5-10 in each catfish they catch! Hickory and Avery can shad plus herring….they are eating machines, like tye cormorants that are now at above historic levels! The dam at Conowingo (or any dam) creates an ambush point for those ….now that Blue catfish have been introduced and are getting larger (I’ve seen 35+ pounders) and will top out over 100 pounds, they too will take their toll on the shad….not sure if they have made it to the Delaware yet, but they will unfortunately…ugh

The fish are small, were larger in March and the past few years have been larger again in May. I would not be surprised if that happens again this year, again the numbers are fine.

Size????

The "good" news is; The commercial fisheries landings in both NJ and DE were reduced by 33% beginning for the 2023 season. Presently, they are operating under landings cap: 7,772-pounds for DE watermen and 17,251-pounds for NJ watermen.

Fished Milford Thursday. Only one other boat there. Only on fish between the both of us. There are fish there but had lockjaw. 52 degree water may have something to do with it. Gonna be a while before I get out again due to weather forecast!

Up north managed 5 today in 3 hrs. Water still cold up here.

Just FYI, the ASMFC is sugesting to NJ and other states to lower the daily shad bag limit from 3 to 2.

The exact number was 114 in the past 2 nights!

Correction- Steve Meserve

They got almost 150 Shad in the net at Lambertville the past 2 nights. There are plenty of fish around!

Zero boats under Lambertville/New Hope bridge yesterday afternoon/evening. Zero fisherman at Fireman’s eddy, water temp was 62F and just slightly stained. Historically the last week in April should be just the peak of the mythical “main run” in this section of the river. Pretty much tells the story! Seems like the vast majority of the fish were early runners as only reported catches are far north.

Fished Zane Grey from shore today 3:30 - 6 pm. hooked and landed 4 shad water temp. was 53 deg. That one deg. drop seems to have shut the bite down from last night

@Dennis Scholl and Dave D. The reason there are no large returning females is because something is happening to them after they spawn. That “something” is comprised of many factors, but the biggest one is simply that a slight increase in average temperature combined with an unbelievably high predation rate by the overpopulated and ridiculously overprotected Striper population prevents almost all returning shad to survive. Looking at data from the Susquehanna (where numbers of shad are at all time lows) the Delaware river (on here, Facebook and Bi state tournament results ) has almost no repeat spawning size shad and the Connecticut river (who’s shad tournament also reflects very small shad) there simply aren’t any shad surviving to repeat spawn. However, this doesn’t mean the population is “in trouble”….south of the Chesapeake Bay was historically where NO shad survived to spawn again because late spring temperatures were too warm to allow shad survival. That “line of repeat spawning shad” has moved north of the Connecticut River, probably Maine or farther north! This line has probably moved constantly over the course of Shad’s migratory history, with it moving south when climate cools (remember there were ice sheets over North America only 10,000 years ago!) and moving north when the climate warms…we’re just seeing this line move north in our lifetime!

Fished Zane Grey from shore today 3:30 - 6:30 pm. hooked 22 landed 19 shad on double dart rig . water temp. was 54.5 deg.

129 in 4 days tournament from Gap area to North of Bushkill and river fished well until 6pm last night then it got too dirty just perfect boat conditions overall. 30, 60, 14, and 25. After finding big body of fish N of Bushkill Thursday afternoon - kept going back to the same well but Saturday was exact opposite scraped every inch of a 2 mile stretch and could not get on them. Sunday morning back down by gap for a little wading and it was even slower but then went back North to the hot spot with boat and started getting them good but it was clear the shad were changing their swim lanes as the river was rapidly rising. Kept having to slide over to stay on the edge of the main current seam made all the difference until it just got too dirty by 6pm. As I continueto say - overall the shad run is still in a down cycle. Each year showing less numbers and zero return spawners. The lack of fish in the Worthington stretch the entire tournament shows a huge hole in the run. That stretch was red hot a week prior and I probably caught the back end of that body of fish Thursday N of gap when we got 60. I do think there are early runners and a main run that usually holds bigger roe. In a good shad run - the gap between is not usually this pronounced. 2018 and prior for many years these dates showed huge volumes of shad in the areas I speak of. There was no drop off. Last year - never really had a “great” epic day until May 15th in a good Shore morning session - a shad every other cast.

Few shad caught near gap while I was there. 2 hours 1/1 on dart. Saw one other caught. 1/2 on fly near dark and spawning observed. Not very many pods spawning, however.

Thanks Kurt, I’ll give it a try.

Could someone from the association go back and repair the old links that lead to nowhere. It took me 2 weeks to find this current log. I was certain the association was no longer active.

Most fish less than 3 pounds???? HMMMMMMM... Here is an article on the reintroduction of Hickory Shad into the Delaware River back in 2005. Please read: https://www.fishandboat.com/About-Us/Angler-and-Boater/AnglerBoater2005/MayJune/Documents/spec1hicks.pdf

Thanks Dave, I used to fish that area south of Portland when 611 was open, I guess I could go into Jersey and take Rt 46 and fish that side. Thanks, definitely an option.

Fished the Gap by the visitors center boat launch from shore, nothing. All the boaters went up to the Rt.80 bridge to fish, don’t know how they did. All other shore fishermen that I could see did nothing either, I talked to a few. I tried every color combinations I had with darts and spoons. I usually fish the Pa side but with 611 closed I can’t get to the spots I like, the fish tend to run that side better. Oh well, maybe I’ll try up by Smithfield beach, I don’t have a boat so I have to fish from shore. I drive over an hour to get to the Gap area so it’s disappointing when you don’t even get a bump. I know people don’t like to give up spots but is there any other areas to shore fish from near there ? They don’t have to be an exact location.

Good old time shad fishing this afternoon N of Bushkill S of Dingman’s. No spoons. No divers. No downriggers. Just 1/64 and 1/32 ounce hot pink and white darts with light weight ahead of them in 7’ of water. After wasting the morning at Worthington to scratch out 8 I pulled the boat and went North. Quit at an even 60 for the day (52 that spot) at 7pm left them biting. Good action but these are by far the smallest roe I have ever seen. Most don’t even make 3# and that was once unheard of. Most fish we got were roe. Landed two in net at once on a double dart rig. Hooked and landed a 6.6 lb channel cat - man I thought I had the winning shad at first!

Fished Narrowsburg for 1.5 hrs this evening..........No hits.......no fisherman either?