North Carolina Shad Run 3/10/20

[Johnsfolly]

Ok getting back to finish out the trip that we made to South Carolina. I originally was looking at Rocky Mount NC to catch the American shad run up the Tar River. One of my goals this year was to catch an American shad or as they say in the South, white shad. Ending up fishing in SC put a damper on that trip initially, but I was able to stop in Rocky Mount on the trip back to Maryland. I only had a few hours to fish in order to get back to the hotel in time to shower and check out of the hotel. I had a list of potential access points along the river between Rocky Mount and Tarboro. The reason that Rocky Mount was such a good location for shad fishing was that the Tar River is dammed in that city making that area the end of the line for the shad running the river. I decided to fish downstream of the city with the idea of working back to the dam as needed. The first couple of spots had really steep banks and looked less than fishable to me. At the third location, I decided to get the rods out and rigged with tandem shad dart and spoon combo. The dart was 1/4 oz in white and red with a silver spoon with red feathers. Short story, lots of casts but no bites and I broke off the combo . I also burned about two hours of time with little to show for the effort. I decided to head along the river back towards town. I came across an access that I had not seen on Goggle maps. Two guys were fishing this spot. They were fishing near a very large culvert with a strong steady current.

It was now near 8:30. One of the guys left when I arrived. The other guy had been fishing there since dawn and he mentioned that around 7 to 7:30 that the bite was on and that the group landed about 30 white shad. Now the school had moved on and there were a few stragglers still in the current. I put on a 1/32 oz green and chartreuse shad dart tied about 8 inches above a green shad spoon. I added two small clam weights above the dart. I would cast cross current and had a slow retrieve with slight pulls every so often to get the baits moving erratically. Shad don't eat on these spawning runs, so it is all a reaction strike situation. Giving that little extra movement could illicit a strike. I missed a couple of bumps. After about 20 mins the guy hooked and landed a shad. 10 mins later he called it a day. I took his spot about the culvert. With the angle of my line I added a couple more weights to keep the baits low in the water. I took about 10 more mins and I had a solid thump on the line and hooked up. I got off the culvert and got down near the water to better fight and hopefully land the fish. The fight was strong with several runs. It was everything that I was hoping for except no jumps. I got the fish banked and had my first American or white shad, which met one of my 2020 goals . I even broke into a smile!

   

This fish was just over 18" in length and about 2 1/2 lbs. Not a giant but a solid fish. Unfortunately I had to leave soon after landing this fish. I hope that I can get on some others as the spawn begins near Maryland and Pennsylvania.

[Johnsfolly]

After check out we did look at the water up near the dam. the river breaks up into multiple branches all converging at the dam. The water looked really good for shad with a decent current and lots of current breaks, eddies and seams for the fish to hold. We saw a few fishermen and watched one guy land a shad using a chartreuse curly tail grub. So I will keep all this information in mind possibly for next year's run if I can't get on them again this spring.

[Quillback]

John, you are knocking the fish off your yet to catch list quickly!  Never have caught an American or Hickory shad, but hear they fight really well.  

[Johnsfolly]

7 minutes ago, Quillback said:

John, you are knocking the fish off your yet to catch list quickly!  Never have caught an American or Hickory shad, but hear they fight really well.  

They truly are the poor man's tarpon ! It's a shame that they don't get much larger. A 20 lb shad would be a beast to tackle .