What tide pattern are you using for shad?

[HeaveToo]

What tide pattern are you using to predict a good shad bite?  Are you hitting the two hours after high tide window? 

Has anyone tried the Rappahannock River yet for Americans? 

Today I will probably hit the Occoquan to see the the shad are in there yet.  If they are, good.  If they aren't, I will try to pick off some Crappie.

[Charlie Church]

Heavetoo,

If you don't mind me asking.....could you point me in a direction of
any of these spots on the Occoquan. My girlfriend lives out that way
and well it sure would be nice to not have to make the drive a
distance to fish when I am staying over there.

[Jeremy Dusina]

Heave,

 

I went out on Wednesday afternoon from 5:30 - 7:00PM. High tide was around 9PM that day. Hit the area under Chain Bridge. In the 1.5hrs I was on the water, I landed 9 Shad, lost two others, and had several more strikes. All with a short clouser. This is just one reference point, but I would say incoming tide is a great time to be out there.

 

Jeremy

[Daniel Davala]

For the past bunch of years I have fished exclusively with a #6 Chartreuse/White Clouser tied short.  I am of the school of thought that the pattern itself is of little consequence, but depth, positioning of the fly in the current, and retrieve speed/style is everything!  The only semi-scientific way I have found to test my beliefs is to stick with only one pattern, color, and size, and focus only on presentation.  After more than 5 years of fishing only the pictured pattern and catching plenty of Shad in several rivers, I am happy with my conclusion.  This is not to say that a Chart./White Clouser is THE pattern, but to say pick your favorite small, bright, flashy fly (Bonefish flies like Crazy Charlie's and Gotchas are perfect) and fish it well! 

 

Specifics for the tiers, I tie my Shad Clousers on #6 Gamakatsu B10S Stinger Hooks (best Shad hook EVER!!!).  I use calf tail instead of buck tail because the fly is only about 1.5" long and I don't like to waste my long crinkly buck tails that I need for longer flies.  Besides, calf tails are cheap, and one tail will yield 100s of flies.  Flash is Krystal Flash in the "Rainbow" color, which is really just a mixture of random Krystal Flash colors on the same hank.  The thread is red and heavy - fewer wraps with a lot of tension.  I don't bother with epoxy on these, just a nice shiny coat of Sally Hanson's Hard As Nails.  Eyes I'm not picky about, I really just use what I have laying around in the right size.  Bead chain works fine too.  For eye color - red, yellow, white, silver, gold, black, etc. all work, it really doesn't matter.  This year I had a bunch of white eyes left over from a tube kit, so I used them.  I definitely rely on my sinking line or sinking tips to deliver the goods, not the size or weight of the eyes.

 

Hope this helps a few of you.  Can't wait to see the pictures and hear the reports.

 

Dan Davala

 

P.S.  Keep your rod tip IN the water when you strip!  Makes all the difference in the world.  Short, quick strips have been the ticket for me.

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[HeaveToo]

Charlie,
THe Occoquan is a place where you need a boat or a kayak. There are three different launch points that I have used.  My favorite is right under the 123 bridge in the Town of Occoquan.  It isn't really a launch point, just a parking lot near the river.  I jump in the river there with my Kayak.

Dan, I posted the recipe to the fly pattern that I created on here a while back.  It is called a red headed flasher.  That pattern was a hot pattern on the Rappahannock River.  It is deep sinking and extremely flashy.  I am going to try that one up here.

I was mainly asking what is the best time in relation to the rising and falling tide. 

On Friday, March 23, 2012 4:01:39 AM UTC-4, HeaveToo wrote:

[Brad Gentner]

I like the clouser as well except I tie it with no body hair, just a wing on a gold minnow hook with gold eyes. Works like a charm and is super easy to tie. I add contrasting color with the floss I use for tying.

[HeaveToo]

I hit the Occoquan yesterday. I didn't catch nor see any signs of the shad.  I did see a lot of Snakeheads at the fall line.  They were trying to swim up the falls.  There were a few that were well over 30" in there.  I really wanted to catch one but didn't have any luck.  I managed to catch one descent large mouth bass and a big crappie.

I wonder what fly would work on these snakehead fish.  I talked to some spin fishermen that came into the area and they told me that the snakehead come into this area of the river only during this time of year.  They also told me that they haven't caught or seen any shad in the Occoquan this year.

It is a shame about the shad.  Still, I would love to catch a snakehead.

On Friday, March 23, 2012 4:01:39 AM UTC-4, HeaveToo wrote:

[Jereme Thaxton]

I had a snakehead come to my headlamp light the other morning above Fletcher's, scared the tee total pee out of me as I wasn't expecting it and it got kinda close.  If I had a top water fly I probably would have tried that but I have heard to throw whatever you have.  I prefer bass poppers, swimming frogs and large streamers.

Here is a YouTube clip about snakeheads in Va:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1HmUY5EOo&feature=related

-Jereme

Sent from my iPhone

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[Steve F]

Charlie says there are some herring in there (http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqbewt/id8.html) you may have just missed em on that trip.  As far as the snakeheads go, I heard that the typical bass patters will take snakeheads as well.  Now, I've actually never caught one so you peaked my interest.   I may have to get my yak in the water and giving it a go.  

Steve.

[mdtownes]

HeaveToo,

I try to catch a rising tide -- not sure why. I think somebody told me that was a good time. The Mike Bailey epic shad post implies that falling or rising tides are equally good, but low tide is bad.


Miles

On Friday, March 23, 2012 4:01:39 AM UTC-4, HeaveToo wrote:

[Dan Dutton]

Heave,
there are shad in the Rapp now, but I wouldn't make the drive if you're looking for americans. 

regarding the tide, I like a stronger outgoing flow.  I feel it concentrates fish in eddies, seams, etc and makes it easier for me to figure out where they are. 
I've found in the shallower water of the rapp, light levels play more importance than tide.  I prefer low light levels, but this might be a moot point in the deeper waters of the potomac. 

On Friday, March 23, 2012 4:01:39 AM UTC-4, HeaveToo wrote:

[McFly]

I like the bead chain patterns tie in a cheap but strong #6 mustad 3366 hook, Woo's site.www.woofish.com has a nice pattern that anyone can tie because they are so simple just remember use bright colors and some flash tie a few of each color and change up until you find out whats catching the fish

On Friday, March 23, 2012 4:01:39 AM UTC-4, HeaveToo wrote:

[Richard Lin]

I went to Orvis store yesterday and dropped off my broken rod to Dan for repairing. Then He helped me pick out the materials I need for Shad Clouser. At night I tied fly to match his shad as much as I could and I made 6 shad clouser but his is still looked better. ;-)

 

Today this morning I went to Fletchers with inflatable boat, saw too many fishers and some fly fishers on boats. I stayed there for 2 hours and nothing. But I didn’t like be in crowd in same spot. I then quitted it and drove up to chain bridge, changed rod to two hands rod and walked down to the river.

 

Guess what??!! I caught TWO SHADS (16 and 17 long) for the first time. What is the best thing is I caught them with two hands rod for first time, too! Yeah!! THANKS to DAN!!! Seriously I almost lost in faith with two hands rod because I tried with it few time and caught nothing in the past. After this morning , I felt better and will trust my two hands rod – Of course, I still need more practice with it and learn to understand water movement in large river.

 

I thought I saw Victor (I knew his characters – big sunglass, ski hat and white watch)  walked to next to me and fishing for short time and then walked off. I saw people tried talking to me in my back at Fletchers. I am sorry if I ignore you – I simply am Deaf and I might not know that you were trying to talk with me.

 

Happy Easter!

 

Richard

[Sarge]

Hi Richard,

I am a novice Fletcher visitor (2 trips, so far), but have caught half-a-dozen fish on chartreuse/white and blue/white Clousers tied like your image (214143a). My biggest challenge is getting the fly down deep. Have been using RIO Versitip, but will switch to Teeny T-300 full sink line.

Sarge

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[Richard Lin]

Cool! I did tie chartreuse/white (like Alex Gorman posted picture recently). I felt bits few times and couldn’t catch the Shad from last time. I think they are too long for Shad, I decided to save them for next round – striped bass.

 

Dan got me RIO Skagit 650gr with RIO full sink tip.

 

Richard

 

From: tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sarge
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 7:59 PM
To: tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: What tide pattern are you using for shad?

 

Hi Richard,

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[Jereme Thaxton]

Hey Richard,

Great post and glad you are finding success with the two-hander, your shad flies looked pretty darn good too.  Dan is an awesome guy and probably the most selfless I know, so you are in good hands there for sure, especially when it comes to spey.  And don't be afraid to trim those long flies down for shad, I notice it pretty quick when they are too long and I get short strikes one after the other, luckily its pretty easy to correct with scissors.  Another thing I noticed is that after catching several fish, you are bound to dull your hook after a while, and I land a lot more fish after a few strokes with the hook file.  I check to see if it will hang on my finger nail with little pressure.  

Also, I like the chartreuse/white pattern as well, though not sure if color really has that much to do with it when it comes to shad as other species, getting down deep does have a lot to do with it however.  I also like a fast action after letting it get down there.  Keep up the good work...

-Jereme

[Richard Farino]

Fly length - this is something to keep in mind.  Keep your shad flies short enough so they don’t just eat the end of your flies and run with them instead of taking the fly itself.

 

Trimming the fly works, but I’d suggest just tying them shorter to begin win, and using materials that don’t rely on tapered materials like bucktail or animal hair.

 

Hot fly colors last week were pink & red/white.  The shad fly we sell works amazingly well.  I fished twice last week and both times I decided to change up because I got tired of only using 1 fly and never losing it.

 

 

R

 

 

Richard Farino

Urban Angler VA | 108 N. Washington Street  2nd Floor | Alexandria, VA 22314

(703) 527-2524 | fax: (703) 527-3313 | ric...@urbanangler.com

[Richard Lin]

Jereme – Thanks for the tips! Yeah! I agreed with you about Dan! ;-)