I have had much luck with this set up. Main line > sliding swivel snap with lead > bead > barrel swivel > approximately 2 foot leader > favorite lure. However I am land locked and not fishing from a boat.

Here are my favorite lures:
- colored bead above a barrel swivel with siwash hook
- shad darts (green)
- simple lead jig
- I heard Dick Nites work too

Too bad I can't attach a pdf. I'll try to find a picture. I'm sure someone has a picture of the bead, swivel, siwash setup.

 

I don't have a photo, but just a brass barrel swivel with a siwash attached to one end will do..no. 6 silver on the Siwash...

 

Use a pink or green powdercoated #6 Gamikatsu hook tied with a dropper system.

 

I'll second that one Bill. Silver on cloudy days and brass on sunny ones. We call it the willamette river killer.

 

dick nites, chad darts, little tinny chartruse jig all work great. as far as depth..... 15' - 25' of water should do just fine although you can go shallower if you want.

I run a two spreader design when I'm fishing

spreader off of main line
2' of leader to dick nite
( where your anchor should go) about 2 feet of main line
spreader
2' of leader to little charturse jig
2' of line to the weight on the bottom

This way your fishing two different styles of baits..... if you want send me a PM and I will take you out in a couple of weeks and show you the ins and outs of shad fishing.

 

Here's what I use ... the bead isn't really important.

 

When I fished for them, I went to Cascade Locks and fished the Locks with a mooching rig type setup; weight on end of main line, with 3 size 2 or 4 hooks attached by loops. Then, I just put assorted colors of yarn on each hook, and let the fast water carry it through. Cascade Locks is a pretty good place to go when you know they're running, but can become overcrowded. Also, I've used Flickerspoons, Dick Nytes, Triple Teazers, and Lightin' Bugs, which are kind of a jig with metallic colored skirts. They all work pretty well.
I have a book on how to de-bone a shad around here somewhere.. but never have done it. Has anyone? How do they taste? Heh.

 

I actually sometimes use flicker spinners because I've also caught salmon on them...can fish a double rig, I spose...spinner/prawn and shad...

 

Whatever you do, don't use Maxima Chameleon for leader. :noway: Turns the bite completely off for everyone in the boat... ask Smily. :redface:

 

I fish from shore at Bonny on the WA side.

Shad darts, chartreuse (sometimes with red head). Go with small sizes. 1/16 ounce with size 4 or 6 hook is perfect. Other colors of darts don't seem to work too well for me there

Paint eyeballs on the dart--use a sharpie pen--you'll get more bites. Tie up like drift gear: about a 3-foot leader to the dart, with 1.5 inches of pencil lead above that.

I used to tie a standard clinch knot from my leader to the dart. But I read where someone doubled their hookup rates by using a Rapala knot, which is kinda like a loop at the end of the leader to let let your dart jiggle a bit more.

I used to think that it was important to fish on really sunny days. But my dad killed them last year on a cloudy rainy day.

On my best day, I landed 55 and lost another 20-30 more.

 

Fred N did a great pictoral thread a while back with some excellent pictures and tips. I can't find it though. Whatever happened to Fred N, anyway? :shrug:

 

I've got Fred N's post saved as a pdf. It was a great post with a lot of useful information. It was that post that showed me the barrel swivel and siwash hook setup. I could email it to whoever wants it.

 

What about WD-40? I hear it makes quite a difference.

____________________________________________


Fish till dark, you can rest later!:yay:

 

I there a place to fish for shad near Washogal/Camas in the Columbia? I was thinking of taking lunch break from work to fish for shad in that are. Any help on locations would be appreciated.

 

oh yeah, use gold hooks on your darts.

 

Here's a sampling of lures...

One that's not in here is the tiniest spin-n-glo they make. Last year it actually outfished my usual favorite of the curly tail grub.

Where I fish in the Mult Channel, 90% of the game is being in the fairly narrow slot that they're moving in. Often it's only a couple boat widths wide. If you're off to the side of it, you'll get the occassional shad, but if you want to run up some numbers, you need to be in the path of the main herd.

 

Here's a sampling of lures...

One that's not in here is the tiniest spin-n-glo they make. Last year it actually outfished my usual favorite of the curly tail grub.

Where I fish in the Mult Channel, 90% of the game is being in the fairly narrow slot that they're moving in. Often it's only a couple boat widths wide. If you're off to the side of it, you'll get the occassional shad, but if you want to run up some numbers, you need to be in the path of the main herd.

Hi Garyk,
My name is Daniel and I love to fish for shad. I leave in Sacramento, California and this year I went for a week at Bonneville Dam to fish for shad. Please let me know where I could by the shad lures you show in the above photo; especially the ones that are just the hook and the swivel. I have been searching all over the Internet and have not find something similar, however a bunch of people of Bonneville Dam were using them and I had not asked them where they purchased such lures.
Thank you,

Daniel

 

pete has the right rig, but i have to beg to differ with the bead. i have had days where you have to switch back and forth, if you have green on when red is hot you might as well be fishing with a diaper. and kerry is right about the maxima chameleon, smiley and i were constantly catching fish and he wasnt getting a thing till he switched leaders, i wouldnt hae thought it would have mattered!

 

This should keep you busy reading for a little bit :cheers:

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?p=827994

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=115555&highlight=shad

http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=53745&highlight=shad

-jokester

 

Ok Tommyboy
I would like it
fyshndad@aol.com

 

Sometimes I use a Mag wart as a diver to give the pink hook shad lure more action than what a plunked offering + current does.. it works good!

 

I have found a drop of Mike's Shrimp Gel on whatever lure I am using increases the bite. Nothing like a cooler full of shad marinating in their own goo.

 

Don't put any water in the bucket until the first on is in it!!

.........................Bad Karma.............................

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I actually told the guy next to me last year that bacause he was catching nothing. He dumped out the water from his bucket and - WaLa - both rods in the boat went down - double!!!!!!!!!!​

 

Here's what I use ... the bead isn't really important.

Yep, Pete has it right. I started using this set up Pete posted on ifish about two years ago. First trip with this setup in 2005, 55+ shad in a couple hours at Oregon City, just above the Clackamas mouth. Last year, we fished early morning one day on the Columbia to get a "few" for oversize, and man oh man, in an hour, we got probably 100+ on the bead setup. And I hooked two and landed one oversize, all before 11 AM. That was a GREAT day I'll never forget!

SKP

 

:agree: Slayed 'em this way last year. Cheap, easy to rig, and really effective.

 

Dick nites, beads, bare hooks, green grubs, they all work, but no one has mentioned the MOST important thing. Shad are actually very leader shy. Drop your leader size from the 10 or 12 lb that most people use to 4-6 lb leader and you will catch twice as many. Quality flourocarbon (Seaguar is my favorite) is even better. Of course if Mr. Spottytail takes a liking to your dick nite your going to be screwed, but smaller, less visable leader always outfishes anything on larger leader.

- Brad

 

OHhhhhhh, SHAD. What a wonderous creature created and planted by others with different reasons, but us recreational fishers, they are momentous at every level. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! :meme:

I should update that page ehh, my writing is pathetic back those years...