The Only Shad in the River (Delaware River Report)

[MudCat08]

4/19/2017 - Went over to the Delaware River in the evening in hopes of catching one of the silver tarpon. Fished somewhere north of Walpack Bend; rainy day, saw some shad splashing, no fishermen on the river. Managed to catch a decent 17" smallmouth bass on a huskyjerk at dusk. Stayed for a few hours of night time for walleye but no takers.

4/20/2017 - Back at it, same spot in the evening with darts, spinners, and flutter spoons. This time saw no shad splashing, a couple of fishermen in boats - assuming they were going for shad too. Didn't see anyone catch or holler. Caught another small walleye on a flutter spoon before dark. Cloudy conditions, warmer day than before, no rain.
Kept throwing flutter spoons until about dusk when everything changed - something in deeper water hit the spoon like a decent sized walleye but then proceeded to give a ridiculous 5 minute + fight! I was expecting this to be a bigger fish but as soon as it got close enough to net, I realized it was something I have never seen before - the Delaware tarpon I've been after!
For the small size of this fish (probably a buck) it gave a crazy fight, no jumps but back and forth runs, even tried beaching itself on the shore, then back into deep water..I can see now why people love to catch them!

After a photo, the shad was released, didn't bother with measurements or weight. After a bit of a revive it swam off.
Continued to fish after dark, lost a whole bunch of rapalas in the rocks, but at that point it didn't matter - I'd trade a few rapalas for a first shad haha. Switched to some cheap fleabay jerkbait lure, tossed that around hopelessly until to my surprise something actually hit it. Very weak hit, gave no fight. Ended up being a very thin 25", I'm guessing post spawn walleye. This one had a few growths (lymph tumors maybe.) Released to grow bigger for next time!

Overall, a very lucky trip!