Shad Still Running?

The Patriarch, the Captain, and I braved triple-digit weather yesterday to try to catch some shad.  We heard great reports last week regarding “the shad have landed.”  The Captain studied the tides and decided that we would not have to be on the waters until around 11 AM.  And so it was.  Every fishing trip is unique.  The memorial things about this trip were pow-wow time, scenery along the Sacramento River through down-town, and catching shad on a rig made to catch jack smelt.

Between the Patriarch and the Captain, I have access to almost 150 years of life experience at my disposal.  We chatted about relatives back home that I have never heard of….  But, I enjoyed the conversations regarding their friends catching shad on the Sacramento River the best!  Unfortunately, we only ran into one of their friends yesterday.  He told us that where we had anchored was the hot spot… but that was last week :-(  Darn!  No wonder, we were the only boat in the spot whereas the week before, there were twenty boats on the same spot :-(  Double darn!!

Since we missed the boat for shad fishing in the vicinity, we decided to hop from spot-to-spot to enjoy the scenery along the river.  The exciting thing for me was that I used to work down-town and walked to these locations.  Now, I get the awesome view from the river.  I attended several functions at the Delta King Hotel.  I learned that the Rio City Café and Joe’s Crab Shack are next to the Delta King and both have sittings with the water front view.

As great as the conversations with dad and big bro. and as great as the river scenery, greater was the fact that we weren’t skunk on this fishing trip :-)  I did a strange thing at one of our fishing locations.  I modified a sabiki rig, used for catching jack smelt, and lowered it into the water.  Within about five minutes, I got a take-down and landed a nice 18-inch shad hen.  That was to be the only fish landed for the day!

Yes, I know; fishing is not all about catching.  But it sure feels good.  The added bonus was to spend the day with dad and big bro. and picked their brains about life.  Enjoying the view of the down-town water front from the river is just fantastic.  I guess it’s not too hard to please a farm boy from ‘Nam.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Nothing to do with this blog.  Just an awesome cookie made by my lovely wife!

Our first fishing location was near these birds.  Good thing we had our hats on :-)

These were our old productive fishing spots, but not this time.

Bridge over the American River.

The lone friend of the Captain that we encountered.  How come they anchored so far from us?

Bridge over Sacramento River near down-town.

Close up picture.

Joe's Crab Shack is to the right of the photo.

Been at the Delta King several times....