Russian River - Shad Run 2019

  Halibut will have to wait for now because I am fishing the river. I thought I would share with everyone...enjoy

 The American Shad was first planted in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest in 1871.  They can be found in the Sacramento and American rivers as well as the Russian , Eel and Trinity.

  The Russian is my home water and this past winter's prolific rainfall has brought a nice return of Shad.  They willingly grab Flies and jigs making them one of my favorite species to target on the River. 
 
  Fish this year on the river are averaging 20 inches and I have seen quite a few fat hens easily over 3 pounds. Their fighting abilities and appearance has earned the fish the nickname "Poor man's Tarpon". Find the fish and you can often have 10 or 20 hooked,  sometimes many more. Its very addictive.

Time: mid April-end of June
Where: from Healdsburg( Momerial beach) to Jenner
 Rig: 9 foot 5-7wt fly Rod with Shooting heads and shad darts or 6- 7 foot ultralight/light spinning rods 4 or 6 lb mono with chartreuse grub on 1/32 -1/8oz Red jigheads and split shot to aid in casting and depth.

Pics to come....

Sounds like fun!

This guy....

Thanks for the write up Cappy! Clears up some mystique from my youth. I spent many lazy days fishing on the Russian. I mostly taught myself to flyfish pulling smallmouth from around the stumps on poppers. Some of the best memories of my adolescence.  I would find a few Shadflies, with bludging metal eyes, snagged on the stumps.  I imagined madmen fishing when the river was full, which is a scary thought.

Looking at your beautiful pics, and 40 years later, it appears great fun.

Thank you.

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My Steelhead fishing buddy Adam... he's a kayak noob.
Gonna hafta bust his halibut cherry! Lol

Yup

Nice one John!!!

Smallest one I caught 

The big females make you think you have a steelhead in the end of the line! I like amos’ picture with no fish 

Smallest one I caught 

The big females make you think you have a steelhead in the end of the line! I like amos’ picture with no fish 

Ah...yeah the big hens can certainly put up a good scrap!
I hooked a few that I couldn't move. Lost those ones.
Yeah Amos got into some...just not that day.
That's fishin!

That's one of things I miss most about living in Santa Rosa.

I only did it a few times on the Yuba and Sacto, but it was fantastic; with crazy fights.  Wading out, the fish were so thick I thought they were rocks on the bottom near my feet.  Easy to tie the chain-bead-eye flies.    There's a book about the history of shad in the USA - going back to the Colonial days where it was common table fare (They didn't mind picking around the bones, I guess.).

Thank you so much for this report! I had been wondering if it was going to be a good year for shad on the Russian. Now I know!
You say they're in Healdsburg, below the dam, spillway, whatever it is?

I've heard of shad in the russian, Thank you for sharing, that is very cool!!!
If we had the elusive time, we'd be over to chase them.  we hardly have time to chase shad in our home river... 

Thank you so much for this report! I had been wondering if it was going to be a good year for shad on the Russian. Now I know!
You say they're in Healdsburg, below the dam, spillway, whatever it is?

  Your Welcome Brother Jaun!!!

Thank you for posting Captain sounds like good times will be had by all that fish the Russian River. You got me thinking of targeting shad