2006 Shad Chronicles

“Another Big Water Year”

It always helps our shad season when we have a good snow pack and spring rains, but again this year we had more that we needed.  With the Sierra snow pack at 150% it was going to be another heavy runoff year.  By the end of May, typically the start of my guiding season, the Yuba was just too high to fish so the only choice was to fish the American River.

With the high runoff even on the American we were able to find shad holding in some of the usual soft spots in the lower part of the river.  Around the first of June we started moving higher up the river since that was where the biggest concentrations of shad were holding.  I have never seen so many jet boats on the river like this year; they were all over the place.  We had some respectable days here and there but not as consistent as I would have liked.  I enjoyed spending the day with some new clients, Joanne and Gordon, Mike and Aaron on the American, they have already rebooked for next year in hopes that the Yuba will be in shape.

Since I can’t handle all of the anglers that want to fly fish for shad, I made the decision to have another guide work for me this year.  Joe is a good friend and fellow shad fisherman; he bought a boat, got his guide license and insurance.  We have fished together a lot and made many pre-trips together before the season started.  I thought that we had it covered, boy was I wrong.  From the internet and the Fly Fishing Show I get a lot of business, some of the people I have never met until their day on the water.  Through the FFS and several emails, one angler booked a trip for himself and a friend.  Since I already had clients that day, I had Joe guide them.  I didn’t think it was a problem and I thought that they understood that I was already booked for the day with other anglers.  But I did not effectively communicate that information to them.  They were complete gentleman that day and never said a word until about a week later about how disappointed they were that they thought they were going to be fishing with me not someone else.  I learned a valuable lesson from this experience and one that I don’t want to repeat, that is why you will see a “Booking Calendar” on my web site.  Now that I have done my public crying, let’s get back to fishing.

June 5^th on the American was a very slow day, still lots of shad but they had lock jaw.  I think they were just interested in trying to get warm in the cold water.  You could see shad next to the shoreline in about two feet of water.  We hooked a few fish but really never got into them until the evening.  I was ready to make a move to another river.

That night I made contact with Glen who was to fish with me the next day.  He didn’t have a problem making the run up to the Yuba; in fact that is where he preferred to fish anyway.  I’m glad we made that move.  For the next two weeks it was lights out on the Yuba despite the high flow.

Since the Yuba has a very lucent bottom, you never know from year to year what it is going to look like, this year was no different.  As the flows drop the river changes even more dramatically.  This year the bank anglers were pretty much out of luck, way too much water and since the river had changed it wiped out most of their prime spots.

Mike and Tom have been fishing for me with years, they always seem to pick the right day and this year was no exception, two fantastic days again.  Craig and August fished with me last year on the American and were looking forward to fishing the Yuba; they were not disappointed and even brought along two fellow Club members.  They ribbed and joked with one another all day.  The Peter’s, a father and son team, from the LA area had never fly fished for shad and came up for two days, they were surprised at how hard a shad would take the fly and then the battle was on.  I haven’t used spinning tackle for years but I was surprised when I thought the fly angler would have the advantage over the spinning angler in one location or the other and the opposite was the case.

All in all it was another good shad season.  Who knows what next year will bring.

Thanks to all that joined Joe and me this year, looking forward to seeing all of you next year.  Make sure you check the new calendar on the web site and book early.

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