Shad Action in the Sacramento River

I gotta confess, I didn't sleep well last night because big bro. called around 4 PM and told me that he witnessed people landing more than 70 shad in the Sacramento River earlier in the day.  He asked if I was interested in trying for some shad again.  Hence, I tossed and turned all night long.  I dreamed about the different fishing rigs and double and triple hookups we're gonna get.  So I got up at 0500 hours this morning and went for a 2-mile jog on my treadmill at an incline!

Just as he promised, he and dad arrived at my home at 7 AM.  We launched at Garcia Bend Park and anchored at Freeport Blvd. around 8 AM.  Around 9 AM, both dad and big bro. got a hookup at the same time!  That's the double hookups that I was dreaming about.  They both landed.  Dad had the hot rods and kept landing a few here and there.  Finally, around 10 AM, I got a take-down.  I fought the fish until it was near the boat....  Then the line went limp!  I checked and found out that my 4-lb test line broke.  With it went my pink grub.  I replaced my 4-lb. test with an 8-lb line.

The highlight of the day was when the same pole went down again around 11 AM.  As I was busy landing the fish, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw my other fishing pole on my right got hit!  Once the fish on the left was in the net, I dropped the pole and retrieved the fish on the right.  I was using light trout fishing poles so the action was fantastic.  After a brief fight, I landed... an undersized striped bass.  What a thrill just to have both poles going off at the same time.

Around noon the action slowed down.  We ate lunch and then left.  It wasn't a super shad fishing day, but it was a great day compared to our last shad outing!  We ended up with dad landing 6, big bro. landing 2, and me landing 2, for a total of 10.

My contribution since I ran out of bottled water :-)

The Freeport Bridge over the Sacramento River.

Downstream

Some shad actions of the day: