Hickory shad are the species in the Roanoke River; American shad, a close but larger relative, make their run in the Tar and Neuse Rivers. In other states along the east coast a similar story is unfolding.
It starts as far south as Florida in the St Johns River. In December and January shad make a run upstream and can be caught as far south as Sanford and Deland. The past several years saw a huge decline in the number of shad appearing in the St Johns, something some biologists attribute to the ever-warming water.
In Georgia, the shad run kicked in in the Altamaha, Satilla and Savannah Rivers earlier in March. Good numbers of shad were reported being caught.
And, up the east coast, all the way through June, the shad will migrate up their native rivers to spawn, spurred by the warming waters, and shad anglers will be there waiting with rods in hand.
Shad anglers come in many varieties, but all share one common thread. When the shad are running, almost everything else comes to a grinding halt.
We fished two days this past week, and caught 101 the first day under a threatening overcast sky, and 70 the second day in an all day driving rainstorm, complete with some very scary lightening – lightening that put us on the bank and out of the water during one particularly heavy storm.
The water on the Roanoke can be particularly low on one day revealing the huge rocks that make up the rapids, and literally fifteen feet higher on the next, depending on how much water is being released through the dam. The lake level is regulated to protect the impoundment upstream from flooding. That means the river downstream will fluctuate radically.
In an ideal spring, the water flow will settle for several weeks and the rocks that make up the rapids at Weldon will hinder the shad from moving any farther upstream. That means a concentration of fish in the pool at the end of the boat ramp, and that means as many as 100 or more boats all fishing in an area 200 yards wide by 1000 yards long.
This year recent rains across the region forced the water management people to release more water than usual, and the normally unnavigable rocks were fifteen feet below in a torrent of current.
Shad are not unlike many fish – they will seek out eddies and slower current in which to hold. That means many of the feeder creeks and oxbows that are prevalent in this part of the river should be holding fish when the water is up.
We found our fish in a feeder creek we had fished in years past under similar conditions, and in the relative calm and protection of the overhanging trees, we caught fish.
Using shad darts and small spoons, the action was steady all day, with many double hook-ups. We would go ten or fifteen minutes without a strike, then catch ten in a row as small schools of migrating fish made their way into the creek.
Using micro-light (one step smaller that ultralight) spinning outfits with four-pound test line, we caught shad that averaged over a pound with some as large as two and a half pounds. Poor man’s tarpon – that description is not far off. On tackle that light, long fast runs coupled with several jumps were the norm. Several fish actually jumped into the boat! One ran under the boat and jumped on the other side while David’s rod was down in the water!
If you live within a day’s drive of Weldon and Roanoke Rapids, it is worth the trip to get into the shad mania over the next two weeks. I promise it will bring you back next year as well!
On a side note, one of the shad David caught had a lamprey attached to its side. I was amazed, but before I could get to my camera, the fish threw his hook at the side of the boat. When we returned to the ramp, the Game and Fish survey people indicated that they see a few lampreys each year.
My experience with them comes from the '50s and '60s when they wiped out the lake trout population in the Great Lakes. I was stunned to see them – but also very pleased to hear that they currently pose no threat.
