American Shad (Page 2): I was fishing by Miller Park.

MSTorre Loc: Sacramento, CA

I was fishing by Miller Park.

bapabear Loc: Blaine, Washington

Harls wrote:

Be sure to eat the shad roe. Soak it in milk for an hour then wrap it in bacon held by a tooth pick. Pan fry with butter and olive oil and you’ll love it...

Or, you can be lazy like me and cut it into 1/2 inch pieces (larger pieces will not turn golden right), salt and pepper it, roll it in flour then drop it in a very hot skillet with melted butter. When the eggs start popping and turning golden remove and eat on saltines. It is right there on par with bluegill row. (I won't mention carp roe is outstanding that way as well.

bapabear Loc: Blaine, Washington

My Virginia Grandma used to bake shad. I was young, but it seemed like she cooked it all day. she said that turned the bones soft. About the only other thing I can remember was that it was real good.

montanaelk Loc: Montana

19BassMan wrote:

Hello
Are they good eating

I lived in northern CA years ago and we caught a lot of shad in the Yuba river above Marysville. We smoked them. They have a lot of bones but they were delicious.

hegralow Loc: Sonoma, California

Where on the Sac. are you fishing?

Flytier Loc: Wilmington Delaware

I'll pick one of those up while fishing for hickory shad. Strictly catch an r elease.

Jeremy Loc: America

RuffplayOR57 wrote:

Now that sounds like fun Jeremy, but might be a little late. I have a plan right now to go with a Cousin Halibut fishing 2nd week of May. But I guess I can ask him about it, maybe for a later trip. What do you fish for them with?

Shad darts and also a tiny swim bait on little hook. The Shad are mainly just fun to catch and then use them for crab bait.

Jeremy Loc: America

RuffplayOR57 wrote:

I’ve never caught a Sturgeon, I’ve eaten some Smoked years ago and remember it was good. Still sounds like fun. Thanks for the info

Hard to know when Sturgeon is open for retention. Many places you are not aloud to target them either but have to release them too. I still Haven’t gotten out on water more than once besides for Salmon this year locally. Halibut sounds like a lot of fun.

Jeremy Loc: America

bapabear wrote:

Or, you can be lazy like me and cut it into 1/2 inch pieces (larger pieces will not turn golden right), salt and pepper it, roll it in flour then drop it in a very hot skillet with melted butter. When the eggs start popping and turning golden remove and eat on saltines. It is right there on par with bluegill row. (I won't mention carp roe is outstanding that way as well.

I let the crabs feast on the Roe when they eat the Shad

Jeremy Loc: America

Fredfish wrote:

That's what draws the bigger Stripers into the rivers up here. As soon as the Shad run starts, Big Stripers will follow.

Hey Fred, are those full sized adult American Shad you are talking about? How big are the Striped Bass?

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Jeremy wrote:

Hey Fred, are those full sized adult American Shad you are talking about? How big are the Striped Bass?

Yes they are Jeremy, The state record is 81lb 15oz, caught off of Westbrook,2011. We usually see a couple dozen over 50lbs every season.

Greg's fish
Greg's fish...

Jeremy Loc: America

Fredfish wrote:

Yes they are Jeremy, The state record is 81lb 15oz, caught off of Westbrook,2011. We usually see a couple dozen over 50lbs every season.

👍🏻. So they are feeding on the full sized Shad. I love targeting large fish. Sounds like fun. Do you use bait that looks like the large Shad? Use the Shad for bait?

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

Jeremy wrote:

👍🏻. So they are feeding on the full sized Shad. I love targeting large fish. Sounds like fun. Do you use bait that looks like the large Shad? Use the Shad for bait?

I haven't fished for them since I had my big boat (sold it in 2001). You can use Shad, Bunker (Menhaden) , but the surf sharpies use Live Eels a lot.
Artificials can be large swim shads, a bucktail jig with a pork strip, umbrella rigs, tube and worm, bunker spoon, or in the surf big plugs or poppers.
The population is down quite a bit so we have a slot length now. We can only keep fish from 28"to less than 35", and have to release anything bigger or smaller.

Jeremy Loc: America

Fredfish wrote:

I haven't fished for them since I had my big boat (sold it in 2001). You can use Shad, Bunker (Menhaden) , but the surf sharpies use Live Eels a lot.
Artificials can be large swim shads, a bucktail jig with a pork strip, umbrella rigs, tube and worm, bunker spoon, or in the surf big plugs or poppers.
The population is down quite a bit so we have a slot length now. We can only keep fish from 28"to less than 35", and have to release anything bigger or smaller.

Still sounds like a blast. I will figure the huge one was before the rules changed. I understand why there are rules. I like fishing so much I hope people and rules keep working towards keeping the fish around. I hope my grandkids ( 1 so far ) and the great and great great grandkids etc and so on and so on still get to fish .

Flytier Loc: Wilmington Delaware

What Will help a lot is the new circle hook rules. It completely eliminates snag and drop fishing. That is deadly to the fish when you snag a full size bunker and leave it on a weight 10/0 treble hook to catch a big bass. That treble virtually guarantees a dead fish .