An Interesting Tactic for Fussy Shad

Well I hit the jackpot the other day while Shad fishing. I lost count of the fish landed and any guess would sound too much like BS so I won't even try. The secret to success was a new technique I have been trying.

The river is loaded with fish but hook-ups are sporadic right now as the fish are preoccupied with the whole finding a partner and showing off thing. I was getting the odd one by changing flies frequently and fishing the standard down stream cast and strip method. That wasn't too bad but I was fishing over dozens of fish with such small success. There had to be something wrong with this particular presentation.

So, knowing that shad will often take a fly rising from the bottom I lengthened my leader to about 8 feet and started fishing a short cast in the high stick, nymphing style I would use if I was fishing for trout in this pocket water and concentrating on letting the fly bob up in a Leisenring Lift at the end of a short drift.

Bingo, a fish on the first cast. The rest of the evening went like that. Fish were hitting like crazy with some colour preference for orange just as the sun started to set. It is a great way to fish through the dense schools with out worrying about foul hooking.

We all know that what worked once won't always work again when it comes to fooling fish. To see if it was a fluke or not I took my daughter with me to the same pool yesterday after work and taught her the technique. She was into a fish on her second cast. We had a ball for the next couple of hours with several double headers and one or the other of us almost constantly into a fish.

If you are ever in a situation where the fish are bouncing off your boots but not taking your fly try this old trout fishing trick. It may just change your luck.