Shad Fishing Help Needed!

Hey everybody,

I am new to kayak fishing and would like to expand my fishing horizon.  I have had my kayak for about a month now and have been out to some local lakes and ponds and have had a blast bass fishing.  I think I am ready to hit the river and wanted to get in on the shad action.  I have never fished for shad before (bank or kayak) and would like to get some tips, tricks and areas to concentrate on before heading out blind.  I am not asking for anyone's secret spot or presentation, just some general advice that could point me in the right direction.  Thanks for the help and hopefully I will see you on the water soon!!

You're  in Roseville, I'm in Folsom him me up sometime and we can fish together.

On the shad thing, check out the fish sniffer, there has been a lot of posts lately about shad fishing, spots, setup.. Lots of good information on there.

Depending on where u fish you want your presentation to be right off the bottom. Using a small jighead 1/32 oz with a curly tail grub in champagne color. Use a wiggle cup if ur fishing a med to fast current to give u some action. If fishing slow water, anchor above and use a bobber setup to fish that area. The shad have really soft mouths, so no hard hook sets.

PM me if you have any specific questions.

Honestly I think shad fishing is easier from the shore. If you do shore fishing find some water thats has some movement but not flowing too fast.  Use a bobber about 5-7' up from the jighead with a small split shot 18" up from the jighead as well.  The bobber should be set so your jighead is about 1' off the bottom, like Steel said.  Cast out up river, let it drift down and watch for movement on the bobber.... Rinse and repeat.  I've been using the small foam weighted bobbers.

Here's a pic of the jighead and grub for reference

@ Folsom, thats exactly how you do it. I'm not much of a bobber fishing type of guy. Lol. Except for steelhead. I dont know why, but I rather feel the bite compared to seeing it bite. But both methods are quite productive depending on the type of water you are fishing.

The first thing IMO for every fisherman to learn to to be able to read water and determine the holding areas. This will dramatically increase ur chances.

For shad fishing, whether shore fishing or not, you want to look for areas that have some current, not fast current but not slow either, just in between. Look for pockets of some backwater, areas that are 5-8  feet in depth. Rule out shallows and areas with riffles, although they produce fish, fish don't hold there from my experience.

When fishing with bobber or lead, twitching the rod a few times here and there produce more bites and action compared to just dead drifting.

Yah I'm just lazy, paddling for a stinky shad isn't worth it for me

That is some great advice...I have fished both methods (Bobber and sinker) and have found the bobber fishing to be more effective (You rarely lose a set up).  The key is to have the jig near the bottom and find the seam that the school is sitting in...make sure to cast different distances and locations until you find the fish.  Big fan of the pink jig on the American...IMO it far outfishes any other color.  Good luck.

Jd71 I would agree with you that the pink jig and champagne grub work the best. Although I happened to notice that the chartreuse color during sunny conditions produced a few more fish.

Anyone heard anything about the Sac Shad run yet?

Do you mean the run on the sac river? If so they have been running since mid April. Try discovery, Verona areas for best results.

916-742-2474

Get em daily. Gimme a few hours ill put u on fish.

Matt

Matt that's the small one, where's that pic of the monster you got Tuesday?

Thanks for all help everyone.  This is great info.  I am hoping to get out there some time early next week in the evening.

3-10

I fished from the shore yesterday by paradise beach and got skunked.  I know they're up higher but figured I'd try there.  Guess I've got to go up to Watt or higher.