OC Shad Bite Still On?

[Bounty Hunter]

OK, since you guys seems to be losing so many members over here images/icons/frown.gif , I thought I'd start being and active member and not just a "lurker." (No offense, and I'm definately not going to be that big of an asset.)

So my buddy Hog King needs some shad to take over to Oxbow next week (don't ask images/icons/rolleyes.gif ), and I was wondering if people were still hammering the shad out of the boats up in Oregon City, or am I going to have to go up to Bonneville.

Thanks for any help!

[Bait O' Eggs]

I believe there are still shad to be had at OC, and I will find out for sure tonight. Probably one of my last trips will be today.

I drove down to Clackamette park last night around 6:30pm and watched the boats for about 5 minutes. There were about 25 boats in site and I saw nothing but straight rods. images/icons/frown.gif

I havent been out since Monday, and that would be an old report as we approach the end of the run.

[hawgcatcher]

hey Bait, I was down there checking too about that time. Saw the same thing and thought that the run is starting to dwindle. I was in a big silver ford pu, with a lady with me. All that really looked active were the 4 million skateboarders. Think we could plant some fish in that thing they skate in?? Always lookin to fish those easy lakes. images/icons/cool.gif images/icons/cool.gif

[Bait O' Eggs]

Fished from 4:30 to 8:00 this evening at OC and put 37 shad in the boat. Lost about twice that many. Lots of boats were doing next to nothing, I seemed to anchor up in a good spot. images/icons/smile.gif

[hookem]

b.o.e.

Where you up at the falls or down near
the Clackamas. The falls are still hot
for shad. But down below seems very slow now.

[Bait O' Eggs]

Hookem, I am fishing up higher near the falls. But then again so is most everybody else, bring your own rock to fish from images/icons/rolleyes.gif it wouldnt hurt to bring your own water to fish in either. images/icons/rolleyes.gif

Fished with Gizmo today for 5 hours. We put 103 in the boat. images/icons/smile.gif images/icons/smile.gif Would have been more if he hadnt played with his bug tossing equipment for over 2 hours. Not sure how many we lost, but it was a lot more than we got.

[WheresMyBobber]

BOE -

Not to be nosey, but what in the heck do you do with all those shad you've been catching? I use a pretty consistent amount for crab bait from year to year, and don't need near as many as you've been catching. Do you use them for sturgeon bait, or do yo give them away?

Just curious. images/icons/smile.gif

I'm hoping you don't eat them! images/icons/shocked.gif images/icons/shocked.gif

[Bait O' Eggs]

Eat them, I dont think so... Have you ever smelled a shad. images/icons/shocked.gif images/icons/shocked.gif

They all go into the crab pots. A days crabbing with 9 pots, and 3 bait changes a day will use 27 shad, then if I hang around and crab on Sunday also I will go thru 54 (give or take) shad in a weekend of crabbing.

Catching lots of crab in the bay is all about fresh bait, bait gets washed out after a few hours and really slows down bringing the sea spiders into the pots. If you can get out in the ocean it doesnt take as much bait, because there are more crabs.

I have a full upright freezer that is stacked to the ceiling with nothing but shad. I would guess there is a few hundred shad in there right now. Gonna put 120 in dads freezer today for him.

[mike5097]

I tried them!
Not to good!
My wife bought me this Amato book on shad fishing. It had a chapter on filleting and eating them. The author stressed that on the east coast, shad roe and meat are a delicacy.
He said people line up to eat them......
Well, I came home with a bunch, took two females, got the roe out.
I then tried to fillet them as the book described. I was supposed to end up with a pair of boneless shad fishsticks. All I ended up with was a pile of mutilated shad and a bunch of guts.
Anyway I picked through the pile of meat and found two pieces that were fairly bone free.
I fried them up and took a bite. NOT TO GOOD!
I can't really describe the taste, but they were kind of dirty/mossy tasting. It wasn't real bad, but it wasn't really good either.
I won't go out of my way to catch any for dinner!!
I never did get up enough interest to try the roe.
My 90 year old nieghbor swears by it though.
He says to cook it up with scrambled eggs, potatoes,onions, and bacon. Says it's good for breakfast.
He also throws shad meat into the blender bones and all and grinds it up and makes patties out of the stuff.
I don't think I will ever try it..........

[Hoosier Daddy]

Went after some shad on Friday afternoon. I finally took the wife out and actually caught fish. We have been married for two years, about 4 or 5 fishing trips together, and the first time I have managed to boat any fish on one of our trips together. Just in time too, my fishing credibility was going wayyyy down. Anyway, we were at the bulkhead. We were slowly picking our way across stream about 10-15 minutes per spot, trying to find a seam. Unfortunately, before I got to "the spot", somebody else beat us there. Three to four boats in the area side by side, and he was the only one catching. Kicker is it was the exact spot I was going to next. Oh well, he did get there first. Above and below him wasn't working either, so we just sat next to him as close as was comfortable and BS'd. We did manage to boat a whopping two fish, while the other guy pulled in fish after fish. He even managed to hook and lose a steelhead. Oh well, we had a good afternoon and I finally managed to get my wife a fish! She did have fun playing the shad, so it was worth it. There weren't a lot of other boats down that far, but from what I saw, the few that were there weren't catching either.

[Bounty Hunter]

Hey BOE (or anyone else that knows),

I've got some questions abou this OC falls shad fishing. I went out on Sunday and couldn't figure out how to fish that fast water up by the pulp and paper plants. I hear that you have to stay in the current up there trying to hold Clackamette Park shad rigs down on the bottom with 10 to 12 oz. of lead, but my D-Knights and corked leaders were just going haywire and tanging up on everything. The boats upstream from me were hammering them, and they didn't seem to be using heavy gear.

My dad was using a shad dart with yard and a corked leader and only got one.

Any ideas on what we were doing wrong?

(As I write this I'm thinking the corks were unneccesary)

Does everyone use that much weight up there?

Thanks for any advice.

[Bait O' Eggs]

About three ways to fish for shad up near the paper mills.

Get anchored up on a seam of the current. You are right, the center of the current is very swift depending on how much water is coming over the falls. I never use more than 5 ounces of lead and rig it on a spreader. I like about a 2 foot dropper and a 3 foot leader. Dont forget your swivels to keep it from twisting up. I usually fish this right near the bottom. I like to drop it down and walk it back bouncing the bottom as the current pushes it down stream until it wont walk any more.

The second way is to use a diver. I like to use something like a wiggle wart as a diver and put about a 5 foot leader off of it to the bait. This doesnt usually fish near the bottom, since some of the areas are fairly deep up there. Tying off the belly hook area will dive it deeper, the tail hook will keep it more shallow. Most people use a small jet diver, Jet divers work great I dont like using them and dont usually put them on. I dont like the constant hard pull, the wiggle warts seem to work the lure in a more jerky pattern.

The third way is to anchor up in some calmer water and throw and retrieve with a more standard drift type gear for steelhead. Saturday I was fishing pencil lead in surgical tubing and the bait was on about a 2 ft leader. Not all places hold the shad that you can do this with. There are a few places that it works great.

Spend a couple trips up there watching and you will see why certain spots are always filled with people. It is very location dependant the way the current comes down thru the papermills with its boils and eddies.

Shad are very size and color sensitive. One day it is chartruese, the next red. Keep going thru the tackle box until you are dialed in. The difference between a dick night and a wee dick night can be dramatic in the number of fish you get into.

I am not sure what your corked leader is. I will say it is getting near the end of the run, several boats were doing nothing saturday but giving me and gizmo a bad look. images/icons/shocked.gif I watched one guy throw a 3 inch +/- white rubber jig for over 3 hours within 10 feet of where we were throwing. He never got a fish, and we had over 100 fish on in that time. His bait was to big, and the wrong color in my opinion, but he was consitant, he never changed. RT use to talk about some of his experiments with tackle. That alone is the number one thing I have learned from him, if what you are using dont work, CHANGE!!!

Good luck. dont be afraid to take some binoculars and look at what the successful people are using.