A few days ago, Dennis Covert of Columbia was carefully dismantling his fly-fishing gear alongside Deer Creek in Harford County and wondering about the shad fishing. Was he too early? He was also wondering about the color of his shad fly. He had changed flies and fly colors frequently during his fishing, often a key to getting hickory shad to hit.
“We?ve been trying for the last few hours, but haven?t gotten a thing,” he said of his efforts upriver of the pump house pool on Deer Creek, a Susquehanna tributary. Then he remembered a strike from a small buck (male) hickory on a hot pink fly.
Close, but no cigar, but then the fish have to be released anyway. Spring fishing for hickory shad and the larger American shad is all catch-and-release.
“The fishing has been great, but the catching hasn?t been so good,” kidded his companion Carl Smolka of Rockville, who was also shedding waders and fishing vest. Both were finishing a scouting trip for the Patuxent-Potomac Chapter of Trout Unlimited, scheduled to make a Deer Creek club trip later this month.
Smolka noted a water temperature of 52 degrees, still chilly for shad to make their spawning runs and start hitting bright flies or fluorescent lead shad darts. Temperatures in the 60- to 65-degree range are considered ideal.
Earlier that day, a few anglers spin-fishing Cecil County’s Octoraro Creek at Rowlandsville off Route 222 spotted shad, but did not hook any during a half-hour of observation. They were using tandem rigs of different size/color darts. That?s often a sure bet, since it gives the shad a choice of fake meals.
At Exelon?s Fisherman?s Park on the main Susquehanna River just below Conowingo Dam, one bundled-up angler landed a shad in the stained fast water tearing along the rocky banks. The water in all three rivers was high, cold-looking and colored.
The cold of the last few days will put the shad down again, since shad go up and down a river like a yo-yo on a string as they adjust to fresh water and the right spawning temperature.
Fishing access in the area has not changed since last year, even though better access with a wood walkway down to the rocks is planned for Fisherman’s Park and parking off Route 222 and opposite Ratledge Lane is envisioned for lower Octoraro Creek shad fishermen. These are still to come, hopefully this year, to make for greater shad fishing availability and access by next season.
In the meantime, shad should be finning upstream and hitting well. Department of Natural Resources biologist Marty Gary estimates the peak of the hickory shad run starting today through April 25 and the American shad run to kick off in force about May 1, peaking from May 4 through 8.
Rivers throughout the state including Washington’s Potomac are having similar runs of shad. Have at ?em and have fun.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally-known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and is currently working on his 25th book. He can be reached at [email protected]
