Fishing Log

Fished north of dingmans from 430 to 730. Boated 12 lost 7. Water temp 65, low and clear, no debris. Did not see any shad on the surface dying yet.

Also where I normally go for shad by this time when the river is low and clear you can see the shad and you can literally stand among them in the rapid section I fish. Not this year tho at least not the last two times I've gone.

Fished north of dingmans Wednesday from 4pm to 7pm. Caught 2 lost 0. Water temp 73, water low and clear with debris. Its coming to an end

Doe hollow is in upper mount bethel, pa

Fished doe hollow this morning and whooped em wading with small darts.got 25 plus from 730 to 10 hvy action fish still fresh and coming up.pre spawn must jig the dart to get hits.

Floated / canoed from Upper Black Eddy to Treasure Island today. We stopped and fished a lot along the way. Only thing caught was one small striper.

Fished hummers beach this morning and crushed them below the rapids.small darts red and white seemed best.started at 530 had nonstop action til about 7 then it slowed down.nice fresh fish mostly big Rowe with a few bucks mixed in.still some good fishing left until river drops and spawning goes full bore.then I will break out the fly rod.

Fished north of dingmans from 3pm to 730. Boated 22 lost 8. All fish caught after 5pm. Water temperature 65, clear, low, little debris

Fished north of dingmans from 8am to 12 noon. Boated 9. Water temp 60, some debris, lots of sun

The old Dutchman I used to fish with always called fireman eddy fireman beach.it is Lambertville.

Fished north of dingmans from 5 to 7pm. Boated 13, lost 3. Water temp 61, river clear, minor debris. Going out in the am, first time this year. Can't wait to see results. Stay positive, there's still plenty of fish in the river

SHAD HOTLINE.......River stage at Reigelsville 5.1....Water temp is 61......River still holding fish....go get em....

Fireman's Eddy?

Fished fireman beach Monday from shore and caught 0.then went up above into the rapids and found the chordwood.fished from 9 to 1 and crushed them on darts in the strong current edge.best day I had since 2017 caught a fish every few cast til around noon when the sun popped out so still a lot of fish coming up.

Thanks Phil. I may just chase them a bit upstream...haven't had enough river time...two real good days out of four trips and look for a few more fixns.. I used to trout fish the Lackawaxen up in Rutland in Charlie's hole many many years ago..figure a long weekend I could snag some old memories and hit a few buckaroo and Rows..hit both rivers.. Wish everyone well , have a great week

Advice, Should I pack up and chase them up north say Barryville/Shohola and or launch out at the Lackawaxen river. I never chased the shad up there. Do they still hit spoons? are they spawning? Can I throw the flyrod at them and what type of fly is a recommended? Thanks

Any thoughts on this subject Rich F..

Caught one wading Smithfield this evening. 1 or 2 bumps besides. Some surface activity but not much. Tried a rapids section with no luck. Nobody else fishing.

Shad harris. I noticed two shad swimming on the surface with their head out of the water also. I thought it strange. Fished north of dingmans 330 to 630. Boated 22 lost 6. Water temp 61, river high, windy, water clarity ok but not clear.

My 7th and last trip to Riegelsville today. I was the only boat on the river. Parking lot had no other boat trailers. Three guys were fishing from shore. Water temp. was 64. I caught three roe from 7:15 to noon, the last one coming at 11:30. Two of the roe had green egg sacs, the third had developing eggs. That's it.

Ok been getting feedback from other anglers fishing gap and way north where they were seeing an abnormal shad behavior and abnormal dead floating shad sightings. I probably expressed concerns about excessive "man handling" of the fish which is always an issue regardless but probably no more or less than it ever is. Shad swallow darts and spoons to the gills (spoons more than darts), they won't survive. If someone catches and release 60 shad, there will be some casualties for sure. Again - nothing new. What I really observed other than floaters, was shad acting like they had "whirling disease" swimming in wide circles with their heads out of water, looking like they were being fought by another angler but they were free swimming. Let's remove spawning activity as the cause this was middle of day and water temps just recently hit near-spawn temps and I can verify seeing enough recent egg sacks that were not even close to spawn. So what are the possibilities? 1) Simply part of "kill and release"? 2) Water temp spike "too fast" as it went from 40's to 60s in a matter of a few days, instead of a normal 2-3 week period of it staying in the 50's? 3 )Do we have a disease situation at hand here? I see there is something called VHS that impacts gizzard shad. Oregon has had parasitic issues in the past - "bacterial infection has been the cause of large losses of adult, spawning, American shad (Alosa sapidissima) " 4) Even though this is the least shad I have ever caught in terms of success versus effort hours, I have seen the most lampreys attached to the shad in my 46 years of catching them. At some point they will most likely kill the shad and probably make them behave rather squirelly as they near end of life. What say you? Would like to hear from some experts on this...

I typically shore fish from the Worthington parking lot. Now that I have a boat I am able to take my daughter out and we fished North of Dingmans Friday night and only went 3 for 3. We were off the southern of the first island upstream from the bridge. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated, as I see others hitting it big. Thank you in advanced!

Is it only me or are roe taking lures deeper this year. Have not seen damaged or floating fish but have noticed almost all roe I caught this year have taken lures very deep. Lost one and three have needed a lot of care to swim off. Fished two saturdays in gap one in easton no fish there. 10 fish caught half roe half bucks. Bucks were all in outer mouth roe took lures deep. All caught on flutter spoons. Was fishing fluke style to get bites.

Boat fished 6;30 to 5:30 started just N of Bushkill - only 25 netted, probably 10 hookups lost. Day started with first 3 rods in water all hooked up at once. That action died as quickly as it started. Covered a lot of water, over 5 miles ending up just about 1.5 miles S of Dingmans bridge. Fished every pinch point, hole, etc. Seemed we always picked up a few out of each stop, but never could get a solid bite going. Best markings were in deep 15' water yet again, smack middle of river. I don't have downriggers - honestly would rather fish from waders which I enjoy more before I go that route! Historically I have always had my best action in 5-8 feet of water but not the last two seasons. Water got stained overnight and went up a foot, moderate debris. Conditions seemed ripe for a wild bite though and Rob W you are the only one I heard of today that found it! Good job.