Fishing Log

Joseph C, depth below train bridge ranges 16-24ft depending on tide and river level. (From boat a couple of pilings off the bank.

A couple in the Octoraro yesterday. Nothing in the river, herring in Deer creek. May be shad as well but too high and dirty.

1 hour of fishing at the train bridge produced 1 buck shad on a dart. Can anybody tell me what the depth of the river is right below the bridge. I've heard conflicting reports ranging from 15 to 30 feet.

Hope the weatherman is wrong. Night temps in teens in the catskills and 20s here will put river temps back into early march levels.

The Delaware River shad

Fishermanfrank, fished at New Hope Yesterday from 10 till 3:30 Water was high & fast 49to 51 degrees 9 caught In afternoon between 4 boats . Some leaves & scum on lines sun &wind gusts all day

Dоn't wаste your time with explаnаtions, рeорle onlу hеаr whаt thеy want to hеаr.

Just a note to let others know that the shad print has been taken.

Brandywine Shad Festival set for May 22, 2022 is looking for volunteers to assist with fishing instruction for kids attending the event. All tackle will be provided at the event. If you're attending and can volunteer an hour or so, it would be greatly appreciated. Contact Jim Shanahan at Brandywineshadfest@gmail.com if you can assist. The future of our resources our the youth of today. Thanks in advance for your time. Kevin

I fished the Schuylkill Sunday morning on the falling tide from 0700 to 0900 when the front moved in. The place is always hit or miss early in the season, but with the water in the mid 50's I thought I's give it a shot. Nothing but a couple snagged gizzard shad and a snagged sucker until the sun got high enough to warm the water a touch. Then I landed one buck and LDR'd another. It was just a few minutes of fishing and then the wind turned around and the clouds moved in. I was done.

On 3/24/12 I caught shad at Zane Grey the water temp. was 52 deg.

Still big chunks of ice in front of boat launch at Zane Grey.

I did well today with multiple doubles one of which was a 24 inch roe for a total of about 15 shad with even mix of roe n buck. didn't get any bites after 12pm fished a total of about 3hrs. water temp was 45 degrees.

I had a spare rig in the car, but it was for bucktailing for stripers. Your mentor was right and following that sage advice has made me late getting home more than once.

Mission had mixed results: I landed 1 buck shad but tripped over my feet as I was doing it, fell and broke my rod 1/3 down. I now have a fine ice fishing rod. But the fish are there and willing to hit my dart at ~45F.

Thanks WG. Once I start snagging Shad by accident when I’m jigging for walleye I drop out a line for Shad just in case

There are still a good number of shad coming up the Raritan. Catch em every year. Juast gotta be under the radar. Ha,ha!

We got shad this morning using poor mans downriggers. All were good size with a mix of roe and buck. water temp was 39 degrees. Nothing after 12pm.

Water temps are in the mid 40s on the Susky, soon, very soon.

Hi. Check the classifieds for some great shad dart molds I'm selling. Call me at 484-397-7974 or email me at DScholl165@gmail.com for more information. Plenty of info. in the classifieds.

Richard. Yes that is how I interpret it also. The regs I a referring to are on the PA Fish Commission website under Delaware River and Estuary. Read the footnote for Shad at the bottom marked with **. The 100 ft rule goes back to original reciprocal license agreement between the two states. I only used it as a hypothetical example as that is what used to be used as a reference to define a line of demarcation. Reason I asked is that I had a spot that I considered giving a try but would be fishing is 50 yards or so off of the main river. NOT WORTH RISKING A TICKET, so I will stick to my usual spots in Lambertiville.

(Richard: Now to fix my typos) I understand that and thank you for the information. My question was more in reference to fishing at the confluence of tributaries to the Delaware River on the NJ side. (PA clearly spells out that you can while the 2022 NJ compendium does not). So I guess anybody fishing for shad 100 feet upstream in tributary water on the NJ side would be doing so illegally (?)

DAVE D. The ASMFC requires any water that doesn't have a sustainable run be off limits. Up till now, the Delaware has been the only local river to qualify. Recent young of the year surveys have resulted in a not-sustainable status for it. I am under the impression that even catch and release is out of bounds but there is no talk of closing it down altogether in the Delaware, only talk of tighter restrictions. Perhaps the ASMFC has changed their position or the sates are defying the ban. If my striped bass in the Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy theory proves to be true, nothing will result in stocks rebuilding to historical levels and the threshold of sustainable run will need to be lowered to a point where there is no longer a downward trend to stocks, but to where a status quo prevails.

St. Johns River, FL finally cool enough for shad migration and catches are being reported.