Some action….nice

6.May: Other commitments kept me away from the river for the last 4 days, hence the radio silence. Today I was at the Wall by 4:45 pm, and found almost 20 folx lining the wall. The weather was perfect, mild, and no breeze. Reports were it was a slow day, although Cissy reportedly caught 2 stripers on willow leaves; one at 34.5", and another at 29"! The water was up a couple of feet from the rain, mostly clear, and the current was fair. Some flotsam was on the water, but not bad. So I joined the throng, and put my arm in a cast. A 1 oz weight was all I required, so I stayed with my tried and true U/L set up.

I could feel the alewives bumping my rig on most casts, and every once in a while one stuck. They weren't abundant, but they were a bit of a pest. Shad were landed or lost at intervals, one here, another there. About an hour after I started casting practice, I had a solid hit. After a little skirmish, he came to the net, where he promptly snared the hook. It took some effort to get the barb out of the netting without cutting it. A middling little buck and I had our Kodak™ moment. I wanted to throw him back, but he was out of the water so long, I didn't think he would make it, so I donated it to someone who asked if he could have it. By 6:15 about half the crowd had moved on, and I moseyed on home for supper about 6:30. At least I caught my vitamin shad. Most of the fish today, including Cissy's stripers were caught close to the Wall.

Terminal Tackle: 1 oz drail over a 3-1/2', 10# flouro leader, and hammered silver willow leaf in red and white, with a black dot. That traditional color seems to get it's fair share of attention.

Tight lines!

7.May: late report. I got out of work late, arriving at the Wall a little after 5:pm. The water was up a bit from the last trip, clear and with a fair current. I took casting practice for almost an hour before heading home. The fishing was slow. A few shad, and alewives were caught, but they were few, and far between. No fish today. Still, it was good to be out with the usual suspects.

8.May, I didn't get out Wednesday. The regulars said I didn't miss much. The water was high, current stiff, and a LOT of flotsam, including whole trees which they had to pick and thread through to reach the shad. A few shad were caught; few being the operative word.

9.May: I was at the Wall by 4:45 pm. Only about 5 shadaholics had their arms in a cast, while another 4 made chin music at the parking lot. The water was higher still, but below the top 2 courses of rocks. The current was good, water clear despite the recent rain, and the debris floating by wasn't bad. Sure we had to time our casts to miss the larger sticks, but it was very fish-able. And shad were caught at fairly regular intervals today! About 5:15 I had a hard hit, it ran deep, and stayed deep, using the current to it's advantage. Eventually, she reluctantly came to the Wall. She ran from the net a couple of times, and made us work to land her. A nice fat roe, about 3.5#. Not huge, but thick. A little while later, I caught a small white perch. A few alewives filled out the score card for a nice afternoon on the water. By 7:pm I was ready to head home to my supper.

In the morning, I'm driving down to Christmas City in PA to visit my brother, sister in law, and niece. My brother and I will take some time to fish the shad run in the Delaware River in the Easton area. While things are spinning up around hear, the run is slowing down in that area. Who knows, maybe we'll run up to the Water Gap if the weather isn't too bad. time to finish packing. Tight lines!

Terminal tackle: started with a 2 oz drail, but switched to 1.5 oz after losing it. Under that, 3.5' of 12# flouro leader (lost my 10# spool, ya take what ya can get...), and a rainbow of colors in willow leaves. Ms. Shad was caught (and released) on a hammered silver leaf, in white w/glitter and an eye.

11-13.May: I spent the weekend visiting my brother and his family in PA. He and I fished the Delaware on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we hit the Reigelsville boat launch, in Milford NJ. We each picked up one shad for the day. On Sunday, we headed up to Belvedere NJ, where he scored one shad. We didn't see many people out, on either day. On Monday, I drove home via the Water Gap, and scouted a few places. Bushkill boat launch is a day use fee area, and I wasn't paying $10 to fish for a couple of hours. And the shore access was very limited, and not conducive to shore fishing. Eshbach boat launch was much more accessible, and undeveloped. It's accessed by a dirt road/ramp, and no fee. I wasted about an hour there. The channel runs closer to the NJ side, so next year, we'll try that, I think. (Gotta love PA's reciprocity with NJ! You can fish either side of the Delaware.) Finally, I stopped at the Milford (PA) boat launch. It's another day use fee area, so I didn't even scout the shore access.
My brother said things were slowing down in his area. Next year I'll try to go down in late April, which seems to peak thereabout.

14.May: I hit the Wall about 11:am to find a few shiftless shadaholics practicing their casts. The water was down, clear, and had a stiff current. 1.5-2 oz of weight were the order of the day, on the outgoing tide. A few alewives were caught, but I only saw 2 shad caught before 2:pm. Being slow, I did my grocery shopping, with plans to come back after 5.
After 5 wasn't much better, and even the alewives were scarce. By 7, I threw in the towel; no fish today.

I'll be going out mid-morning, we'll see if it's any better today. Tight lines!

I couldn't agree more, Don. It's always good to be with family, and a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!

15.May: I got out later than I wanted today. One of the cats has been moping around for a couple of days, and this morning, he looked like he was ready to check out. I spent a couple of hours at the vet, while they worked him up. He got into it with something, and had a bite near the base of his tail that was abscessed. So I left him for treatment for a few more hours to head over to the Wall in Cromwell. (I picked him up late this afternoon, he's home, and doing much better, FWIW.)

I arrived at the Wall in the drizzle, about 11:15 am. There were 5 people chatting, and taking casting practice, and no reports of shad caught. The alewives occasionally made an appearance, but the shad, not so much. To make a long story short, I left at 2:30 pm, and had only caught 1 alewife after losing a few. A couple of other shadaholics joined us, and I only saw 4 shad caught while I was there. One was a short, but FAT roe weighing in at 3.95# on Bill C's scale; hell, I'll give him the 1/2 oz. It was all of 4#. That roe, and 3 decent, but smaller bucks were caught, 2 were released, including the roe.

Tomorrow is going to be iffy, at best, but we'll see how accurate the forecast turns out to be. I'll head out if the rain isn't too bad. Tight lines!

Terminal tackle: 1.5 oz drail over a 3'+ 12# flouro leader, and hammered silver willows in pink w/black dot, white w/red dots (aka: spotty), and candy corn (use your imagination for the color scheme, LOL).