AndyS
03-20-2011, 04:35 PM
Went down by the old broken railroad bridge by Rt. 287 this morning. I threw a large shad dart, chartruse, for about an hour where the river runs narrow, nothing. River was up around 18.00, and a little off on the color.
Went up to the South Bound Brook falls and threw a large white jig for a while, nothing.
Went over to the canal and talked to another angler who was throwing a fire-tiger shad rap, he caught nothing , but he did say he got a nice pickerel last week. We chatted a while and he told me about a good walleye bite in the canal last year down around Easton Ave, near Rt. 287. He said guys were getting walleye in the middle of the night on shad raps. He also said a guy was getting hybrids down there on live sunfish. We talked about the shad in the river and he too has caught them, he said he uses a shad dart that is all gold in color.
I know shad cycle up and down. I don't know what kind of run there will be this year, but it is nice to know the dams are coming down, and we do have a fish ladder on the Raritan. I may be too early, but I had to give it a try since I'm only 5 minutes from the river. Funny how quickly you forget about stocked trout when you start catching 5 and 6 pound shad in a large river on and ultra-light rod.
Got shad in the Raritan last year April 18,20 and May 2nd
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=phi&gage=bdkn4
Went up to the South Bound Brook falls and threw a large white jig for a while, nothing.
Went over to the canal and talked to another angler who was throwing a fire-tiger shad rap, he caught nothing , but he did say he got a nice pickerel last week. We chatted a while and he told me about a good walleye bite in the canal last year down around Easton Ave, near Rt. 287. He said guys were getting walleye in the middle of the night on shad raps. He also said a guy was getting hybrids down there on live sunfish. We talked about the shad in the river and he too has caught them, he said he uses a shad dart that is all gold in color.
I know shad cycle up and down. I don't know what kind of run there will be this year, but it is nice to know the dams are coming down, and we do have a fish ladder on the Raritan. I may be too early, but I had to give it a try since I'm only 5 minutes from the river. Funny how quickly you forget about stocked trout when you start catching 5 and 6 pound shad in a large river on and ultra-light rod.
Got shad in the Raritan last year April 18,20 and May 2nd
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=phi&gage=bdkn4