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THE SHAD ARE COMING UP
THE TUOLUMNE RIVER TO SPAWN
By: Ron Wilson
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Young Brandon Rhoy
with a nice American Shad. |
May 31, 2004.... Red Bartley and I recently
went to Fox Grove to try out our luck on these feisty fish.
Red and white or red with red-flake grubs
have been reported as working the best to catch the shad, no monsters but
some fish up to 4 pounds!
We arrived late afternoon, the action was
really slow and my first bite didn't come until 6:00 p.m.
It's been so long since I fought one of the
"poor mans tarpon", I forgot just how good a fight they put up. You'll get
some tremendous displays of air from these hard fighters.
After I landed the first fish a young 11
year old lad by the name of Brandon Rhoy came to check out it out. I set
him up with a couple lead heads and plastics and he soon had a nice shad
of his own.
Brandon said, "This is the biggest one I've caught!"
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Red Bartley holding
one of the feisty fighters. |
Red caught a fish as a friend of his came
by on his way home, when he saw Red hook another shad seconds later, he
just had to make a few casts.
Well that cast turned into a few hundred as
we pounded the water. As the sun sank into the trees the bite really
turned on as the fish started their evening run and were everywhere!
Reds back was hurting after working all day
so it was time to call it a day and go home to get a bite to eat.
The fish were tearing up the water and we
were leaving! In our younger days we would have stayed until we couldn't t
see anymore.
I guess with age comes wisdom knowing that
there is always tomorrow and we can come back and play again!
The fish should be running up the river for
the next couple weeks so now is the time to get them on the Tuolumne.
The shad are also in the Sacramento and
probably in the Stanislaus River too, grab your rod and head to your
favorite hole, these "poor mans tarpon" are a blast! |
