<p> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">**Video Link - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzijXIFkFhc" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: rgb(59, 89, 152); cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzijXIFkFhc</a> ***</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">It is finally here! The long awaited Shad Run. The Shad Run rings in the 2013 year most actively, and signals the earliest stage of Spring time fishing for me. This will be the 3rd year I have fished the American Shad spawn run. The American Shad run is a unique opportunity where anglers can show up and know without the shadow of a doubt they are going to put fish in the boat, a lot of fish!</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1006_645192557245_1605344899_n.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">My wife Erin and I woke up at 0500 in the morning in an attempt to beat the crowds and get “the good spot”. In the past, I had always had the best luck catching shad along the East shoreline of the tailrace canal closest to the sign marking the “do not cross” line of what is a protected sanctuary for fish approaching the lock and dam fish lift. Because the peak of the shad run is so popular in the low-country, vying for that “good spot” requires anglers to wake up well in advance of the competition. I am by no means a cold person, and the sub 30 degree weather was not so fun.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/483817_645192537285_1598193970_n.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><span style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">Despite waking early, Erin and I were not the first to the ramp… several other anglers had already started to gather. Despite not being “first in line”, we got what would ordinarily have still been a good little piece of bank to sit along. The operators of the Pinopolis Lock and Dam kept the water running steadily pretty much all morning. In the past, I did not really </span><a href="http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/boundlesspursuit/2013/03/04/american-shad-spawn-2013/#" id="_GPLITA_3" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6MzM2OTg6MTQxOmJlZ2luOjExYzA0YmU0NWY3MzlhZWI5YTA4NWJiNmMyNjcyMjJjOnotMTA2My0xNTIyNDp3d3cuZmlzaGluZy1oZWFkcXVhcnRlcnMuY29tOjA6MA" style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(1, 113, 214); outline: none; background-color: transparent;" title="Click to Continue > by Browse to Save">begin</a><span style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> to capture fish until the turbines were shot off and the water calmed. Because of this, we spent the first couple hours casting without much luck at all. Eventually, Erin and I decided to try something different, and moved out into the middle of the river channel. We had watched several other boats taking this approach bring in several shad so we basically drifted out into the middle without any particular direction and tossed anchor. On the FIRST CAST Erin tied into a fiesty male (aka Buck) shad. On nearly every subsequent cast she and I were tying into fish. The action was fast paced, possibly the best I have ever had. We caught well over our limit in shad (though we were releasing every fish anyway) and eventually lost count.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/63984_645177741935_564567248_n.jpg" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/11159_645192592175_1669054638_n.jpg" style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> <img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/555197_645192123115_136159074_n.jpg" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><span style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">The method was simple, as I have illustrated in past reports and articles… we simply tied two pink-in-color 1/8th oz. jigheads with small chartreuse curly tail grubs onto our lines. I am not sure why, but this seems to be the standard color combination used by shad anglers. I have tried nearly every other color pattern and small artificial I can think of, but for whatever reason this seems to </span><a href="http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/boundlesspursuit/2013/03/04/american-shad-spawn-2013/#" id="_GPLITA_2" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6MzQ5NzM6MTgzMDp3b3JrOjY5OTgxZDE5YWFlZDdkNzc2MzFiMDVlNTlkNTBjN2I3OnotMTA2My0xNTIyNDp3d3cuZmlzaGluZy1oZWFkcXVhcnRlcnMuY29tOjM3MjYwOjNlNWQwOWI1ZDdmYmUwNGQ3YWFlZGY5MmFjZjg3ZDll" style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(1, 113, 214); outline: none; background-color: transparent;" title="Click to Continue > by Browse to Save">work</a><span style="font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> best.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/426486_645192043275_801523320_n.jpg" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/522547_645177841735_169987407_n.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;"><img src="http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/734423_645178485445_1820520911_n.jpg" style="height: 300px; width: 400px;" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; line-height: 24px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, 'Century gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 11.818181991577148px;">After a long morning battling with the dis-proportionally powerful, acrobatic fish, Erin and I finally left the water with plenty of great <a href="http://www.fishing-headquarters.com/boundlesspursuit/2013/03/04/american-shad-spawn-2013/#" id="_GPLITA_0" in_rurl="http://i.trkjmp.com/click?v=VVM6Mjk0MTA6MTY4Nzp2aWRlbzo2NGE0ODE0NjJhNzRkMjU3OTk1YmNhMzAyNTNkODZjNjp6LTEwNjMtMTUyMjQ6d3d3LmZpc2hpbmctaGVhZHF1YXJ0ZXJzLmNvbToyNTE0Mjo4MzRlNzMxZGQ5ODBjZjYyYzBlNjcxMjJiOWVmOTM4Yg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(1, 113, 214); outline: none; background-color: transparent;" title="Click to Continue > by Browse to Save">video</a> and photographic memories.</p>
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Nice fish, David. I seem to always be too early for the shad run we get near Montreal. Timing is an issue for sure with these fish. Congratulations on a good outing.
Eli
Wow, I would love to be fishing during a shad run some day. That is some great action! Love the catch and release of the stupid pelican too...haha
That does look like a lot of fun David. Do you always use a dropper jig?
mike b
Mike, normally I do... either for the added weight to cast further or to explore different levels of the water column. Also, its not uncommon to hook more than one fish on the same rig at times!
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DavidG Blog: http://www.boundless-pursuit.com
Not to ask a stupid question but what do you do with them?
Just your run of the mill Orvis Boy. Fly fishing elitist. I cannot hear you over my false casting. All guided trips every day.
Fishing for compliments since 88.
We release them all. Some keep them for food some harvest them for cutbait
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DavidG Blog: http://www.boundless-pursuit.com
That's got me looking forward to our Shad run over here. It can be a lot of fun.
Of course the ones we get aren't as hefty as yours. Or as tough! I notice the ones you catch actually swim away!
Fishn sure is neat
Wow dude that video is intense I wish I had the time and dedication to make something like that. Its gotta be quite the task to balance between fishing, videotaping, and operating the boat. Everytime I hit up the shad run I usually only catch 1-2, its all about timing and my timing is always VERY off.
Pretty cool stuff, keep it up, you always have quality reports!
Yeah sometimes its hard to balance video taping and fishing... most of the time I have a partner though. If I do something alone then most of it would be POV.... which i dont like as much. Its a little more annoying when its fishing with artificials and actually having to be proactive to catch the fish... sit and wait style bait fishing is pretty easy to film. I love it though! its pretty easy to actually put all the videos together and stuff.
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DavidG Blog: http://www.boundless-pursuit.com
Awesome report and video, David!!! Miss fishing with ya, especially when you post stuff like this!
www.fishingleisens.com
Do ya'll get any Hickories down there? The Americans should be in the Potomac in about a month, Hickory Shad in a couple of weeks. Your pics and vid really have me ready to catch some shad!
Awesome! Looks like a blast!
The Shad run has been of interest to me since I found about the Montreal run last year. I talked my buddy into it and we have a trip planned for early June. Hopefully we hit the window!