Fishing Log

Try west end beach in Port and DEC access in Sparrowbush

Caught nothing in four trips to the Delaware River in Lambertville and Trenton with flutter spoons. Another fisherman caught his first shad, a 21” roe that swallowed his spoon. I took pics and he gave me the fish. Pickeled shad is good.

River stage 5.4 Water temp 54......Lots of fish south of Easton.....Fish are seen jumping....River in great shape....clear and warming up.....scale down to smaller darts and spoons in the clear water...spotty catches up at the Gap....

Caught my first shad of this season at Zane Grey tonight water temp. was 52 deg. just the one on double dart rig casting from shore.

Lose the crankbait if you are casting from shore

...and the Zimbabwe guy is offering travel rods?

Dingmans ferry closed. Fished Milford from 2 til 7. caught 4. Three bucks one roe. Flutterspoons. I wish people wouldn't fish so close to me when anchored. Water temp 51+, little wind, river clear, some algae

Gotcha. I might try a floating line and see what happens, but I only have 20 pound fluoro with me. Guess I'll just go straight 20 haha. I also have a 7ft poly leader I can put on - that might do the trick as well.

I use a floating line. Too many snags with a sinking line. 9ft leader to cover 3->6ft depths

Joseph - thanks for the tip! I'm gonna keep at it - will try my gold/silver kreelex streamer tomorrow and see how it goes. Should fish just as well, as my dart is falling apart from all the fish/snags! And Duff - thanks for those tips. I used to tie shad darts for the American shad out west, but unfortunately my vise and my materials are all at home in California. Running out of them already haha - gotta get a resupply going. Dunno where to buy em tho... I think I'm employing a similar method, except Im using a full sinking fly line so that it cuts through the heavy current. I get a bit more slack, but I also get more control and better sinking. Are you using a sink tip? I've tried it before, but I was never successful...

Dave - Like Joe said. I make simple two color yarn/chenille flys with a tail of hair or flash that look like a dart. I weight them wrapping with lead. Work them like a dart in the seam - let sink, strip, let drop, strip, let drop. Shad grab it when it drops. I find with a flyrod you can stay in the strike zone longer.

I had less than an hour to try my luck at the Trenton bridge yesterday at lunch time. It was slack high tide and nobody was catching anything but bottom. I was slinging my double dart rig in defiance of the common wisdom that only flutter spoons are to be used there. After 20 minutes I had a hit which turned out to be a double header, both smallish bucks. One broke off before I could get to unhook it. I didn't get another touch for the remaining 25 minutes I was there. Nobody else got anything. It was a stellar day and good for my soul just to get outside.

Just 1 shad in Trenton at low tide.. Fish are past Port Jervis already???

NICE FISH, DAVID.

Also, on a related note... Anybody got some shad darts/shad flies they are willing to sell? I think the Skuke has more of my shad flies than I do...

"Got one good hook up at the higher tide on fly"... good going, David! Ya gotta believe!

Fished the Skuke from 5:30 - 7:40 on a full sink fly line with a shad dart. Got one good hook up at the higher tide on fly - barely lost him in the shallow water. Either way, first hook up in my life in the Schuylkill; so exciting!

"That guy Joseph C can fish." Ha!...and once in a while I can catch something. I'm not so eager to write about just exercising my arm in a cloud of skunk gas.

Not like Carl though

I love the fish this time of year. They are so strong and fresh and fight amazingly. On a related note, maybe, I hate it when a fish is hooked and fights for a while, then gets fairly close in and spits the dart. I've had them end up embedded in my shoulder and had to duck more than once. Yesterday one let it go back at me and the double dart rig flew and wrapped so tight around my rod that I had to cut it off.

IF U NEED SHAD FISHING SUPPLIES CALL ME...RUSTY AT RUSTY BALLS TACKLE AT 484-239-4723..SPOONS, DARTS, DIVER PLUGS, DOWNRIGGER BALLS, INLINE WEIGHTS, PINCH ON SINKERS, DOWNRIGEER RELEASES, ETC...CHECK ME OUT ON FACEBOOK

We caught many shad yesterday on crankbait flutterspoons and darts between 5 and 7pm. There was a even mix of bucks and roe.

Hi Dennis, Thanks for responding. I'm Dean and I'm in Morris Cty,NJ. I appreciate your generous offer but it's not necessary. I haven't done much shad fishing and it's been a few years since I last went. Never did catch one, but would like to give it another try. Like you I'm retired now and have the time to do more fishing, thought I would hit the Delaware a few times for Shad, and also try Raritan Bay for Striped Bass. Got a good laugh from your post about the Flexseal. Take care.

Hey Dennis do you sell darts?