Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Northwest Fishing Expeditions
I went fishing for shad for the second time in my life. This was the first time I found success! I fished near Bonneville Dam, but quite aways down from the crowd. I was happy to trade productivity for an open patch of water to drift. I was there from about 1-6 pm. I drifted and slowly retrieved beads and corkies of all colors and sizes the first three hours. Got nothing, except about -20 setsups lost to snags. So in a way I got less than nothing! This is one of those fisheries that everyone seems to get but me, I started to think.
Out of desperation I started to experiment. I had four Swedish Pimples in my tacklebox (usually just used for ice fishing) and they did the trick! I hooked 6 and landed 4 in about 30 minutes of in-the-water time (two broke my leader on a jump-- I was going very light 4 and 6 lb test). They struck green and red pimples. Didn't care for the blue one. Before I lost my last Swedish Pimple I snagged a leader with a green/white shad dart on it. That caught my 5th and final shad. Once I lost the dart to a snag I tried beads again, but once again came up fishless.
People with ample shad darts did really well-- most people who knew what they were doing probably got 10 or so fish. The first time I tried shad fishing (like 6 years ago) I tried darts and didn't do any good. I guess the bite was off that day or the fish count was low-- because I'm a believer now! Next time I'll have an arsenal of darts and some Swedish Pimples. I was very impressed with the size and fight of the fish! Pound-for-pound these guys are awesome!
Currently, they are in my smoker.
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Northwest Fishing Expeditions