NCC-TU Shad Report #2, first shad and smallmouth bonanza

[Mark Binsted]

The first shad that we know about were caught on Thursday and you can read about it in our second Shad Report. Lois Boland went up to the Warning Rock area this afternoon after reading the report and managed to catch four very cold hickories before the tide went slack. That's the same area a lot of the two-handers fish. 

I'm told by Bailey that my version of the amazing smallmouth bass bite, also in the report, is slightly off. The fish were very hungry and any small jig worked, bucktail or plastic. No doubt flies would have, too. All that really matters is the great photo Mike took--click on the link!

BTW, I first let Alex go out with Mike for early season jumbo stripers when he was 13. Temperatures were barely above freezing and my first son went out on the river before daybreak with an "Animal". A bit nervous, I walked down to watch from shore with binoculars. That first big striper made quite an impression on Alex, and this is the seventeenth year the dynamic duo have been fishing together. They've caught some amazing fish but never smallmouth bass like this year.