After work this afternoon I stopped at Bissell, and fished from 4:30 pm to 6:pm. I met a buddy who's never fished for shad before, he wanted to give it a try. On arrival there were about 8 or 9 regulars plying the bank, and one was landing a shad. There were a couple on the bank, and as we started casting, another shad was landed. The wind was mostly calm, I didn't notice it initially, water was clear and moving well.

Pretty quickly I hooked up, and fought a nice middlin' buck (?) to my feet, where he promptly spit the leaf at me. Shad 1: me 0. My buddy set the hook, and landed a nice middlin' buck, ~2#. We observed more shad landed by others. He hooked up again, and landed a nice little buck, a little bigger than his first. Not bad for his first time out, he released both, and he only lost a couple of leaves, and one drail.

About 5:pm or maybe a little after, I noticed the wind shifting, coming around from the South, straight up from Hartford, and building. It freshened to make the water very choppy, and cooled things off on the bank. By 5:30 the bite had basically shut off, and by 6:pm, after watching no more shad caught or so much as a bump, I headed for home. It was fun while it lasted. I think I'll give tomorrow a pass, due to the questionable weather, and a neglected "honey-do" list.

Tight lines!

Late report:

Wednesday after work, 4:30 - 6:30. Arrived at Bissell to a full bank of regulars. Shad on the bank, and being played. Lots of action! And fairly steady, with a few doubles for good measure. I saw over a dozen and I wasn't counting. I, of course, only caught one, a decent buck. It looks like they're getting bigger. Water is down below the third cleat on the ramp, and dropping 6-8" per day, it's getting low.

Terminal tackle: 5/8 oz drail, over 2-1/2' Flouro leader, blue/white, chartreuse, and orange hammered silver willows.

Going out after work again today. Tight lines!

I went over to Bissell after work today, arrived a little before 4:30 pm. The wind was blowing up from Hartford, the water was choppy, muddy, and full of junk. Since there was nothing happening there, I left for Bart's after about a 1/2 hour or so. At least I dragged up a 3/4 oz drail attached to willow leaf before I left. :-/

At Bart's, the water was as low as I've seen it this year but it was clear, and the current was flowing enough to pique my interest. And there was very little breeze. I headed upstream of the RR bridge, and put my arm in a cast. About a dozen casts in, I had a light hit, and thought I had an alewife. It turned out to be a little bronzeback bass, almost a foot long. He didn't put up much fight until the water started to get shallow, then he put a 90º bend in the Aberdeen shaft of the willow leaf sticking out of the corner of his mouth. It was enough to keep the skunk off me before I left about 6:15 pm. My neophyte buddy can't come shad fishing with me anymore, he's making me look bad. :p He hooked three at Bart's, lost two but landed a good one. Nobody else in the thin group caught anything, the action was slow today.

Terminal tackle: 5/8 oz drail (should have switched to 3/8 oz at Bart's), over 3' flouro leader, and a hammered silver w/orange and a black dot.

Tight lines!

I hate when people fly in the farmy, there should be better manners, just saying. karma, nice fish

I headed over to Bissell this afternoon after work, arriving about 4:30, and leaving a little after 6:pm. On arrival, the water was down over a foot from yesterday, clear but the flow was noticeably slower-not slack or languid but enough so that I changed from a 3/4 oz drail to 5/8 oz. Plenty of characters were plying their trade on the bank, as usual. I didn't notice any shad on the bank when I arrived but it didn't take long before somebody set a hook. By the time I left, a few shad had been hooked: some caught, and a couple lost after a leap or at the feet. Nothing to write home about...

I had a couple of bumps but only came away without the skunk by C & R of 3 alewives. I've only seen one caught, and that was last week; it looks like they may be starting their run.

Terminal tackle: 5/8 oz drail over 4' of flouro leader, willow color didn't seem to matter tonight-except the alewives seemed to prefer the brighter "neon" colors.

Tight lines!