Dam Photographers and Shad Fishing in MD

[Johnsfolly]

I took off last Friday and Livie and I went up to the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River to try and catch some shad during their spawning run up the river. Those of you that know me or have read my posts over the years know that I love shad fishing. This year has been tough weather wise with heavy rains in late March and early April. That plus the need to catch up on work commitments after  our trip to FL have not allowed for a shad fishing trip earlier in their run. The parking area was pretty well packed when we got to the dam. The concrete platform, aptly named Fisherman's park 😅, that we would fish from was also fairly packed but not with fisherman. Most of the space above the water was occupied by photographers lining the fence and the same down by the water. These folks come to the dam to photograph the many bald eagles that frequent the area. Many get there early in the morning and stay all day just to get that one shot of an eagle fishing or soaring above. I have no problem if they were all up along the fence above the water, but on the platform they were taking up the best spots to effectively fish😒.

Livie and I found a spot to fish. We had on a 3/8 oz inline sinker with 18 inches of 8 Lb Pline fluoroclear line and a Nuegasser flutter spoon. I started with yellow/green and Livie a white/red. At this spot the best way to fish is to cast slightly downstream and let the rig drift down in the current while you give it a pull and drop. Once the line is directly below in the current you continue to give the spoon a slight upstream pull and let it drop/flutter back downstream until you get a bite or about a minute or two and then repeat. Often you will feel a fish swiping at the bait. These fish are not actively feeding but are just reacting to the baits.

First cast for me ended up in a quick hook up with an American (aka white) shad.

 

I didn't zero😅. We have fished here in the past and have caught up to 30+ fish in a couple of hours. I was hoping for another one of those days. Turns out we really had to work to catch them.

I did snag this big gizzard shad.

Caught a couple more Americans and a couple of nice hickory shad.

Including a PB 17.75" hickory shad.

Livie did not have much luck, except for a few snags, with the white/red spoon (which she ended up breaking off; she also broke off one or two more spoons). Fortunately there is a liquor store and bait/tackle shop not far from the dam that sells all of the spoons we would use. She switched to the yellow/green and got some strikes and eventually got a few to the net😁. 

A nice female Hickory loaded with roe.

We tried to do our best to get quick photos and release these fish. Over the four hours that we stayed we only landed just over a dozen shad. Not a great numbers days but good to be back fishing. I hope to get a couple more trips to the dam and the spawning creeks in the area before the run ends.

Note: a couple of quillback (and not @Quillback) were snagged while we were there and I know of a guy that caught one on powerbait in a nearby creek two days after we were up that way. I definitely want to try and catch one of them 😉

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Way to go, John!  

[Johnsfolly]

29 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Way to go, John!  

Thanks Pete! We had one of the photographers keep asking if we would keep any of these fish (pretty much after we landed each😒). I kept responding that the state of Maryland does not allow any harvest of American or Hickory shad or river herring, aka alewife and blueback herring in the rivers or tribs of the Chesapeake bay. I thought about keeping the gizzard shad for catfish/gar bait but did not want to deal with a stinky fish and no cooler with ice.

[BilletHead]

 Nice job John! Thanks for sharing. 

[Quillback]

That's pretty neat to see those shad.  

[Flysmallie]

People with cameras are always in the way!

 

Nice report. 

[Hawg]

That's awesome.

[Johnsfolly]

Got back up to the dam Thursday afternoon. Found low flow. Tried using the spoons with a 1/4 oz inline sinker instead of the 3/8 oz sinker we use with a higher flow rate. I started with a white and green Neugasser spoon and caught a hickory shad on the first cast.

Was great to be on the board, but also maybe set some unrealistic expectations🤔. We struggled with snags and kept switching out weights to try and get good long casts with the spoons but not get hung. After 90 mins or so they opened a few of the gates and the fish got active with the higher flow. I switched to 1/8 or 1/4 oz jig heads (yellow or orange) and added cajun cricket and electric chicken Bobby Garland crappie jig bodies. I caught another 4 hickories in the 25 mins or so that they had the higher flow. Livie was only able to snag a gizzard shad and Sue was skunked on the day.

After a couple of hours we headed to a tributary, Octoraro crk, to try for suckers, particularly quillback. I found what looked like a decent hole and I saw a couple of larger fish swimming in it.

We soaked some worms for about an hour. I placed my bait into the seam down near the bridge pilings and got bit by a channel cat. 

I put the bait in that spot again and caught another after 5 mins or so. Livie cast into that spot and caught another.

By this time it was close to 6 pm and we needed to find a spot to eat and head home. Never did get a bite by those bigger fish. Will get up there again this spring with hopefully better results.