{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Occoquan Shad Report

I got out for two hours last night.  Note, it's a lot less crowded at launch points weekdays, but a lot of catfish guys move in at dark.  There are a number of places you can put in and take out to avoid the shore guys though.  Harder on weekends.  

Anyway, I got out seemingly right when it shut off.  apparently it was hot from noon till 4 ish.  I caught one in 30-40 minutes, so...was kinda annoyed. I saw catfish rolling everywhere so put on a herring pattern and sure enough, caught two.  Two was enough, but i threw them on the stringer.  

Then at 5, I started with the shad again.  From 5-6 it kind of turned on with 15 to hand.  Tons of short strikes.  

It was a nice outing.  when I packed it in, I tossed the catfish to some guys on shore.  They were very confused as to why I didn't want to carry them over and put them in their cooler, but saying covid 19 seemed to get the point across.  

Then 

On Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 10:00:12 AM UTC-4, Misha Gill wrote:

I've gotten out twice now to Occoquan for some shad fishing. The first trip I totaled up 14 fish and my largest ever measured hickory shad at 19.25". I believe I may have caught bigger in years past when I did not have the benefit of my check-it stick, but since it wasn't measured it doesn't count. Over 19" is pretty darn good for a hickory shad though!

I got out on Monday figuring that the cloud cover and the light wind would be conducive to catching shad. As so often happens, expectations were not quite accurate. I started fishing at 1:30 and by 4 pm I only had 7 or 8 shad, with a couple nice female hickories over 17" inches coming to hand and the rest being some sporty but smaller males. I hooked two large fish above the pedestrian bridge that got away. One that I could tell was big when it burrowed down deep but twisted free after a few seconds. The second I had seen roll near the bank in a non-shad seeming spot. This fish took off on a run after being hooked that took me into my backing. Could have been anything! Odds are it was a catfish, but my gut says striper. 

Anyhow, I moseyed back down to my spot below the pedestrian bridge around 3:30/3:45. Then the clouds went away and the bite came on. I proceeded to rack up about a dozen and a half fish over the next hour, including the two pictured fish. The silvery one was 17 and 7/8, the yellowish one was 17 and 3/4.  Fly color preference flipped too. Before the sun came out, red and white did the trick. After the sun came out, chartreuse and white was the ticket. I was scheduled to stop fishing at 4:30, but my rule is if I cant go three casts without catching a shad, then I don't have to leave, period. Finally packed it in around 5 pm though after catching that last big one. Good to go out on a high note.

Water was a little stained but not too high. Tide was low when I started and coming near top when I left (probably also a contributing factor to the bite turning on). Tons of other fishermen were on the banks and no one was being good about social distancing. I had to politely decline help from several folks in setting up the foldcat. It is so funny to me how many people are on the banks casting crankbaits down at Occoquan. Here I am having a ball catching shad and there you are trying to catch bass from shore in an extremely heavily pressured spot. I just hope some folks see this and think to switch to shad fishing, rather than proceeding to lose $6 crankbaits in the trees. One dude had a sweeweet carp fishing setup though. He was in the parking lot under rt 123. Had the bite alarms, slingshot, and everything. It was a bit inconvenient that he was draping three lines over the kayak drag, but then again there were also two other dudes set up in the same spot bait fishing, so I had to go further down the shore into the power line easement to launch anyways. As I was coming back in there were several plups from him slingshotting his bait out to where I was rowing. 

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