Montreal shad hunt 2013

[MuskieBait]

Some time around February, I was looking for bus tickets to Chicago. While searching, I came across a seat sale on Megabus. Almost without much thought, I booked a return ticket from Toronto to Montreal for $30! You can't even do half of that 6-hour one-way drive for that price! I shared my upcoming trip with Eli and Michael. Soon, I had those two jumping in on the trip as well. All three of us want to add American Shad to our lifelist.

I planned to visit Montreal the first weekend of June because the American Shad migrate from the Atlantic Ocean to Rivière des Prairies between mid-May to mid-June. The peak of the run usually occurs around the last weekend of May. I thought with the late winter this year, we would hit the peak the first weekend of May. However, the run peaked last week, so we missed it by a few days.

I took the overnight bus to Montreal and met Eli and Michael at a Metro station. A short drive later, we arrived to a fully parked street. Looking down toward the river, the shore was lined shoulder to shoulder with anglers. Great...

We found a parking spot quickly, but took some time to suit up in waders. It wasn't until around 9am that we walked down the river.

We managed to find a spot for the three of us right by the stair access on the river bank. There were lots of anglers, but the number of anglers with fish in their bucket, cooler or stringer were surprisingly few. I was a bit worried that we had completely missed the run. But eventually, we saw a couple of departing anglers with a full limit (5) of American Shad.

We all started fishing with shad darts, but these darts were soon gobbled up by the hungry and vicious river bottom. So Michael and I resorted back to something that had worked for us in Virginia on Hickory Shad - a 1/16oz jig with a 2" plastic grub.

Eli was first to hook up, but we were a bit disappointed that it was a Sauger. Not long later, we were fooled by another pair of walleye.

A successful angler passed by and we chatted with him a bit. He said that we arrived too late. The bite shuts down by 9am and if we are not using darts, we will not be catching fish. Still, Eli, Michael and I persisted on.

As the morning wore on, it looked more and more bleak, until someone further down the bank landed a shad.

Shad often travels in schools, so we were fishing with intent to intercept the school. However, on this day, it seemed that fish were either in very small school, or they were just not interested. It was really a scratch bite.

Finally, Michael hooked up and with the strong pull, it looked like the right kind. After a few minutes of good struggle, the shad finally tired and Eli put it in the net. Great job Michael!



Michael was drifting the jig along the current seam, just like where we found Hickory Shad holding. We continued casting and drifting and a while later, Michael hooked a good fish but the hook came off.

When people started to leave, there was a bit more bank space and I moved slight upstream where the current seam was closer to shore. I was able to reach the seam with my cast more often. After a lot of casting and drifting, I felt some weight at the start of a retrieve and it was a decent fish. I hooked this fish at 11:50am. On my medium action rod, the fish fought well but I managed to tire the fish pretty quickly. Finally...American Shad!

American Shad (Alosa sapidissima) - Species #324



Net shot with the winning lure



Very beautiful fish...but they lose scale very easily. The net mesh can knock off scales. Holding them in hand can rub off scale. And if the fish thrash on rocks, it definitely cause scale loss. These fish are also very delicate and it doesn't take long before they expire. This fish was not going to make it...so I took a few more shots.



Having caught my target, I put the rod down and took a surrounding shot. I'm often too busy fishing and the camera is often ignored.



A while later, Michael hooked into a screamer and the fish took a long run downstream before the hook dropped out. I suspected it was a channel catfish.

I moved further upstream when Michael went downstream to fish with Eli. At about 2:20pm, I hooked up another fish in the current seam, only this time I was drifting the jig in the back eddy. The fish was quickly subdued and I tried to be quickly with a couple of pictures. I was fishing along a rocky shoreline so I had no choice but to put it on the rocks. The fish did swim off upon release...so I hope it did survive.



Michael and I were really cheering Eli on. For a little stretch, there were people hooking and landing 3 shad all around Eli. It seemed like Eli was getting flanked out. Eli talked to a local angler and received a couple of shad darts to use. Eli had renewed hope and fished on. It was just a few casts later that that Eli hooked up! It was definitely a few tense moments watching Eli fight the fish, and I had the honour to net the fish...which I did with shaking knees. As Eli puts it "There is no fight more intense and scary than a lifer fight" True that!



Finally, we all achieved our American Shad lifer! With that done, we decided to call it a day and planned to hit another spot on the way back to Ottawa.

However, our plan was overthrown when Eli arrived at the car to find a smashed car window. Someone had broke into Eli's car. Luckily, there wasn't anything too valuable stolen...but it seriously sucked. The thief stole a few of Eli's CD's, my backpack of clothes was stolen (and I had no change of clothes for the weekend), and strangely Michael's pair of jeans was stolen while mine remained. Luckily, the thief did not find Eli's GPS or Michael dad's camera. It was seriously weird that the items stolen worth the least.

We had a 2-hour drive on the highway and it wouldn't be fun without a window. I had two garbage bag and we patched up the opening with duct tape. We figured that the car was broken into because we had an Ontario plate (surrounded by Quebec plates). When we called the police, they said it was the holiday and they cannot send an officer or write a police report of the incident...WTF?!?!

Anyways......after Eli called the insurance company, we decided to just head back to Ottawa. On the way back, we drove through a thunderstorm and Michael spent 2 hours holding down the make shift window screen when the tape failed. But we did get back in one piece and relatively dry.

The next day, Michael and I woke up leisurely (ie, we slept in) and only started our day at 9am. We headed to a river on the Quebec side across from Ottawa to chase after a River Redhorse. This river is probably one of the best bet during the River Redhorse spawn. Eli had seen some 2 weeks ago and lost one on the rod. I was really hoping to find my lifer River Redhorse.

However, we got to the river to see stained and fairly murky waters. Occasionally, muddy water would invade our spot. Still, we gave it a good try. About an hour after we started fishing, I had a few taps on my line and landed a Yellow Perch...false alarm.

A long wait later, I was about to check my line. I started reeling in the line when I felt a heavy but dead weight on the other end. I was saying to Michael that I had a big clump when the weed looked like it was drifting downstream fast. It was strange since the current wasn't running as fast as the weed was moving. Still, it was just like reeling in some dead weight. Then, all of a sudden, the weight started to swing upstream against the current. I was still puzzled until I saw something broke the water and it was a Sliver Redhorse.

This has happened to me a couple of times in the past where I would reel in dead weight only to find a Silver Redhorse at the end of the line. They seemed to take the worm and perhaps just sit there, but each time, they were simply lip hooked. Weird!





A while later, Michael hooked into his own Silver Redhorse which was a gravid female. She was spilling some eggs so we got her back in the water quickly.

It was a while much longer when I had a couple of strong taps and some spinning fight, which we correctly called it as a Channel Catfish. It was just a small one so it was released without pics.

Time was flying when fishing was slow. It was already well after 2pm and we were about to leave. I got a hit closer to shore and the fish immediately started to run. River Redhorse is one of the largest redhorse species and they are the strongest. The fish on my line fought well and I was starting to get hopeful until I saw the grey tail...another Silver Redhorse. It was a very nice Silver, but a bit disappointing since I was hoping it was a River...

Beautiful 21" fish (I was calling this a 17" fish...I should seriously stop underestimating my fish!)







Eli spent the morning dealing with insurance and getting a rental car, then doing some groceries. But by 4pm, he was free to fish. We met up to fish the Ottawa River at a spot where spawning redhorse was often seen porpoising.

We did see a lot of redhorse and they often get us excited, but spawning redhorse often is not the biting kind. Between Eli and I, we caught some perch, a channel catfish, a smallmouth bass, and this lit up 8" Pumpkinseed Sunfish.



But we didn't catch a redhorse...not until Michael and I had to be on our way home at 7pm. We just got on the road when Eli called to say he caught a Silver Redhorse.

As a last try, we stopped at a small river where I caught my Greater Redhorse last spring. We were losing light quickly and in the dim light it was difficult to determine if there were any Greaters in the river or not. Michael gave it a try for 30 minutes while I fed the mosquitoes. I hate mosquitoes! And Michael only caught a few micro Rockbass.

All in all, it was a successful weekend since all of us caught our first American Shad. It was just a total bummer that Eli's car was broken into and he now had to deal with the unnecessary hassle of car repair, insurance and police report. I was glad that we did achieve our goals...or else it would really suck a lot.

[MichaelAngelo]

(06-03-2013 11:54 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  We all started fishing with shad darts, but these darts were soon gobbled up by the hungry and vicious river bottom. So Michael and I resorted back to something that had worked for us in Virginia on Hickory Shad - a 1/16oz jig with a 2" plastic grub.

For the record, I did not tie on a single shad dart all day. I was using only jigheads in the 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 size tipped with 1.5" and 3" grubs. I still had shad darts in my tackle tray... nobody asked for more .

I wonder if we would have done better if we had been using shad darts... everybody around us was using shad darts and not doing any better than we were. However, technique is part of it. I wonder.

[zippyFX]

Great report guys! Maybe one day I can finally meet up with you. Really nice fish. I am jealous of the red horse!

[MuskieBait]

(06-04-2013 08:23 AM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  

(06-03-2013 11:54 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  We all started fishing with shad darts, but these darts were soon gobbled up by the hungry and vicious river bottom. So Michael and I resorted back to something that had worked for us in Virginia on Hickory Shad - a 1/16oz jig with a 2" plastic grub.

For the record, I did not tie on a single shad dart all day. I was using only jigheads in the 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 size tipped with 1.5" and 3" grubs. I still had shad darts in my tackle tray... nobody asked for more .

I wonder if we would have done better if we had been using shad darts... everybody around us was using shad darts and not doing any better than we were. However, technique is part of it. I wonder.

The heavier dart would probably allow you to reach the current seam more often, but you often have to start retrieving it so it does not snag bottom. The dart does drift some distance during the retrieve...but more in a swing fashion rather than drifting in parallel with the current like our light jigs did. If it is merely about reaching the seam where the shad are holding, then absolutely the dart helps (But then the question is...why not simply use a heavier jig? My only concern with a heavier jig is the larger hook matched with a small 2" grub...)

Something tells me that the dart is shaped in such fashion so that the sloping face of the dart may actually help the jig plane in the water a bit...pushing it a little higher so as not to snag bottom as easily. With a round jighead, the more aerodynamic shape wouldn't allow the water to cause the jig to plane. Now...how about using a stand up jighead or a banana jighead that has similar wide sloping profile?

I really don't know...the guy next to us who gave Eli the darts did landed 3 on the dart...I landed 2 on the jig and you landed 1 and lost 1 on the jig...but sample size is too small and the difference is too little to be statistically significant (don't mind me...up all night working...)

Maybe we can test it one day. Rig up two rods, one with the dart and one with the jig, work the same current seam at the same distance...and see if dart outfish the jig.

But Pat mostly use jigs to catch his Hickory Shad and occasionally some American Shad...it does work very well for him.

[OldTimer]

Good one!

Please describe retrieve speed and manipulation technique for the jigs used in catching the shad.

[MuskieBait]

Shad dart - cast out, medium retrieve...no manipulation necessary.

Small jigs - cast out, keep a tight line while it drifts with the current, at the end of the drift when the jig swings out of the seam, start a medium retrieve...no manipulation necessary.

Both my fish hit at the end of the drift just as I began to retrieve the bring the jig in for another drift. Can't remember when and where Michael's fish hit. Eli's fish definitely hit when the shad was crossing the seam.

So simple a 3 year old can do it. It's all about making enough casts and hitting the seam so you maximize your chance to intercept a curious shad...that's my theory anyways...

[OldTimer]

Thanks MB. Maybe I'll get a chance to use that info some day.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[Eli]

That was fun. Too bad there weren't more shad moving through. I honestly think that had we hit the peak of the run, we would have caught them on just about anything.
I can actually see the muddy water in your redhorse pics. Don't think I've ever seen that river running muddy before. Weird. Must be from all the rain.

...but you forgot to mention the part where I caught the thief, broke his arms and legs, and left him at the bottom of a ditch.

[zippyFX]

I agree with Eli, from what I have read you just need something small and colorful low in the water column. I was hoping to experiment if there were more action. I had brought jigs, spinners and spoons to try if the bite was on but alas, it was not.

For next year I think I will order some small flutter spoons and give them a try as well.

Ken, I noticed the school behavior first hand. As the boats were packed tight when one boat got a hit there was a good chance that the others would get a hit as well at the school traveled the current.

[OldTimer]

(06-04-2013 08:21 PM)Eli Wrote:  ...but you forgot to mention the part where I caught the thief, broke his arms and legs, and left him at the bottom of a ditch.

Catch and Release...............in a way.

OT