Shad Bite Still Going

[Johnsfolly]

Susquehanna River/Conowingo Dam

I took off an hour early on Friday to try for another shad trip up the Susquehanna River/ Conowingo Dam. We had to stop for gas and some 3/8 oz inline sinkers on the way to fish. Got to the water about 6:45. They were still running some water through the dam. We met Cole again and his brother. They had been fishing since 12:30 and had over forty each by the time we got there. Though they both thought that the bite was not a good as our previous trip. I tied on a chartreuse Neugasser flutter spoon which caught a most of my shad on the last trip. I fished it behind a 3/8 oz inline sinker. Livie had on a green/chartreuse 1/4 oz dart and a green/white glitter spoon. She landed the first shad, a hickory, between us.

I caught a hickory as well.

I struggled early while Cole, his brother (they both has on silver or silver/green spoons) and Livie were catching two to three to my one. I switched over to a silver spoon and was getting consistent bites (still had some struggles landing a few). I did get the first American shad between Livie and I.

Livie followed up with her first Maryland American shad!

Around 7:20 they slowed the release further and the water started to fall. Still got bites. Since Livie had a dart/spoon combo, she did catch a couple of doubles which made us glad for the bringing the net.

Livie's first double.

The tough catch was to net another one of Livie's double hickories and one of the larger American shad that I caught that night.

Cole and his brother left after his borther caught his 70th shad for the day. As the water continued to drop the bite slowed as the fish seemed to follow the falling water. We also got hung up in the rocks more frequently. I broke off another spoon and we called it a night at the dam around 8:20 pm. Not as big a bite as our last trip. I still caught 13 hickories and 3 American shad and Livie had 16 Hickories and 2 Americans in roughly an hour and a half to hour 45 mins of fishing. With the falling water we decided to try to microfish the Deer Creek confluence before heading home.

Deer Creek / Susquehanna Rvr

It was well after 9 pm when we got to the creek and geared up. As expected the creek was running low and relatively clear. I had waders on and was looking for two or three species of darter, shield, logperch and banded, that are found in deer creek.

Livie was bank bound and trying for any active minnows. I have not had much luck night fishing for darters so far. This night I found more active fish and was able to catch a couple of nice tessellated darters which is a species I have caught before.

As I was darter fishing, I noticed what looked like an eel tail coming out from under a rock. I had Live come over and she put her bait next to the "tail" and it didn't move. She even touched it and it pulled up under the rock and then came back out. At that time Livie noticed the head of the fish on the other side of the rock and it didn't take long to hook up with that eel. Now we were not real successful in geting good photos of that one.

She did find a much smaller one in another location and caught that one by hand and into the photo bag! We saw an even smaller one (4 inches maybe) come out of the hole that this one was hiding.

I caught one more tessellated before we decided to leave. This guy was the biggest one that I have caught, over four and a half inches.

We got home after midnight, tired, but happy for another successful trip.

 

[Quillback]

That's pretty good numbers of shad for less than 2 hours of fishing.

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

That's pretty good numbers of shad for less than 2 hours of fishing.

It actually was a slower bite than the trip a week prior to this trip. Still so much fun😁

[top_dollar]

You sure don't hear much about the Nungesser spoon, I didn't think you could buy them anymore, I have about a dozen or so in silver and gold.  They are hard to beat for schooling white bass.  The single hook design lets you get the fish off the hook and make another cast faster then messing with a treble hook.  

[JestersHK]

By my count Liv beat ya again lol you go girl!   Glad you two found some more and a good dose of night fishing too!

[Johnsfolly]

7 hours ago, JestersHK said:

By my count Liv beat ya again lol you go girl!   Glad you two found some more and a good dose of night fishing too!

She caught a few doubles using the dart and spoon combo versus me with just the spoon. I'll have to catch her on the next trip😉

[Ham]

I still need to make a shad trip. Ive been wanting to for over a decade. 😐