Captain Ahab
Well-known member
Yes, it was long fishing trip. Met Mr. Fish in Swarthmore, PA at noon. Game plan was to head south to the Conowingo Dam in Maryland and fish the shad run. We made good time and arrived at the dam about 1:00 pm. It was hot, crowded and very, very sunny. We quickly donned waders and armed with our trust rods and boxes of dart, flutter spoons and weights we hit the water.
First stop was the corner of the hydroelectric dam. About 7 anglers were in the water there in a spot made for six. We squeezed in and cast out. As I am casting in rhythm with the anglers on either side I notice large school of gizzard shad milling about at my feet - i drop my dart in their midst and snag one. Mr. Fish snags another while casting for shad and we see one guy land a smaller Hickory Shad. The dam alarm goes off (sirens and lots of red flashing lights that indicate they are opening another turbine thereby releasing more water) and the water begins to rapidly rise. We fish there for another 20 minutes without anything.
Moving downstream we find the entire bank wall to wall anglers. There must have been over 100 people in a one mile stretch of river side. Keep in mind that the entire bank is not readily fishable because of overhanging trees and other obstructions so the people were really crammed in. We find an open spot near a marker buoy and realize why no one is there - the current would continually push your line into the buoy rope.
We start catching hickory and loosing rigs. We quickly tired of the inability to get a “swing” into the current because of the buoy as well as the three guys just upstream who were just letting there lines drift down the bank at our feet. One guy was actually sitting partly in the water, baseball cap on sideways and dressed in full camo waders.
I know he is hard to see in the camo, but you can make him out through the trees. At one point he snagged into mike’s line and began repeatedly setting the hook like he was Bill Dance bass fishing. What a Maroon!
We move upstream and found a great spot open. Just at the mouth of a small feeder creek was a nice eddy and we knew the shad would gather there to get out of the current during their upstream migration. We set up and began immediately hooking fish and fish.
Here Mike lands one of about 120 fish:
Soon an older gent who resembled the late Coach Sparky Anderson set up just down stream from us. We were actually fishing downstream into the eddy but he set up right in the middle of the hole. He was nice enough but failed to take any notice of when we were casting out or even when we were fighting a fish. He would just cast right on top of our lines. After that happened a few times I started watching him and when he would wind up to cast I would make sure we were clear or yell for him to hold up. You would think after I did that he would look around but he never did.
Anyway, we started calling the spot “Sparky’s Hole” in his Honor – and we slayed them there!
Here is Sparky not paying attention::
And here is Mike after landing one after Sparky tangled with him:
Some more shad:
My big one
Noodle Rod in action:
We continued to stay there having a blast with the shad for another few hours. I had a tip about a spot down stream a few miles and wanted to check out the spot. We arrived there to find it again arm to arm anglers but these folks were clearly more experienced and courteous. Other then a few boats a little too close everything was smoother there. Oh yeah, there were shad, almost a carpet of them, so thick that they would run into your line and were jumping everywhere at dusk.
We fished until dark and then headed to Delaware for stripers after dark. I connected on my third cast but that fish popped free. Mike got smashed and again lost the fish as it popped off.
Finally, I slowly worked a broken back Bomber and was rewarded when this one smashed me in the current:
We fished for a few more hours (until about 2 am actually so more like 6 more hours) and Mike hits a shad on an x-rap – (crazy) a small striper:
And a largemouth bass:
We arrived back home around 4 am, tired, sweaty stinky and very satisfied after a great day (and Night) of fishing
First stop was the corner of the hydroelectric dam. About 7 anglers were in the water there in a spot made for six. We squeezed in and cast out. As I am casting in rhythm with the anglers on either side I notice large school of gizzard shad milling about at my feet - i drop my dart in their midst and snag one. Mr. Fish snags another while casting for shad and we see one guy land a smaller Hickory Shad. The dam alarm goes off (sirens and lots of red flashing lights that indicate they are opening another turbine thereby releasing more water) and the water begins to rapidly rise. We fish there for another 20 minutes without anything.
Moving downstream we find the entire bank wall to wall anglers. There must have been over 100 people in a one mile stretch of river side. Keep in mind that the entire bank is not readily fishable because of overhanging trees and other obstructions so the people were really crammed in. We find an open spot near a marker buoy and realize why no one is there - the current would continually push your line into the buoy rope.
We start catching hickory and loosing rigs. We quickly tired of the inability to get a “swing” into the current because of the buoy as well as the three guys just upstream who were just letting there lines drift down the bank at our feet. One guy was actually sitting partly in the water, baseball cap on sideways and dressed in full camo waders.
I know he is hard to see in the camo, but you can make him out through the trees. At one point he snagged into mike’s line and began repeatedly setting the hook like he was Bill Dance bass fishing. What a Maroon!
We move upstream and found a great spot open. Just at the mouth of a small feeder creek was a nice eddy and we knew the shad would gather there to get out of the current during their upstream migration. We set up and began immediately hooking fish and fish.
Here Mike lands one of about 120 fish:
Soon an older gent who resembled the late Coach Sparky Anderson set up just down stream from us. We were actually fishing downstream into the eddy but he set up right in the middle of the hole. He was nice enough but failed to take any notice of when we were casting out or even when we were fighting a fish. He would just cast right on top of our lines. After that happened a few times I started watching him and when he would wind up to cast I would make sure we were clear or yell for him to hold up. You would think after I did that he would look around but he never did.
Anyway, we started calling the spot “Sparky’s Hole” in his Honor – and we slayed them there!
Here is Sparky not paying attention::
And here is Mike after landing one after Sparky tangled with him:
Some more shad:
My big one
Noodle Rod in action:
We continued to stay there having a blast with the shad for another few hours. I had a tip about a spot down stream a few miles and wanted to check out the spot. We arrived there to find it again arm to arm anglers but these folks were clearly more experienced and courteous. Other then a few boats a little too close everything was smoother there. Oh yeah, there were shad, almost a carpet of them, so thick that they would run into your line and were jumping everywhere at dusk.
We fished until dark and then headed to Delaware for stripers after dark. I connected on my third cast but that fish popped free. Mike got smashed and again lost the fish as it popped off.
Finally, I slowly worked a broken back Bomber and was rewarded when this one smashed me in the current:
We fished for a few more hours (until about 2 am actually so more like 6 more hours) and Mike hits a shad on an x-rap – (crazy) a small striper:
And a largemouth bass:
We arrived back home around 4 am, tired, sweaty stinky and very satisfied after a great day (and Night) of fishing
