Meeting a Friend - Shad Derby Update

Today I took Cody with me to Mullet Lake Park to pursue some shad again. I noticed when I arrived, there was a white GMC truck. The truck belongs to one of my friends, David Simpson, who I've been talking to on the catfish1.com online forum. I walked out through the grass to the river bank and thats where he was with his wife. It was nice to finially meet them. He was explaining how he got nothing at Hatbill park, CS Lee Park was packed, and nothing so far at Mullet Lake Park. He said the shad were biting but not as active as they should be. He's caught about 20 shad so far this season, but also added he usually catches more than that. He was getting ready to leave for dinner so it was a brief meet and greet.

I fished for about an hour and half, hooked 2 more shad but couldn't reel them in. The hook popped out of the mouth on both during the fight. I'm going to go back to my light action rod next time, which has more give and a better drag system on the reel. I need to be more patient when reeling them in because of their soft mouth.

The leader in the shad derby is still David Simpson who caught an 18" shad last week. Though there's still 3 weeks remaining in the derby.

My 1st Specks @ C.S. Lee Park

Today was an early release day at Codys' school so I picked him up at 2PM. I checked the weather when we got home and then headed out to C.S. Lee Park. I wanted to checkout the shad run in that area to see how thick they are. I first tried a red jighead with chartreuse 2" squirmin' grub from Bass Pro Shop. This is my most popular shad lure, but I wasn't getting any bites though. It was a cloudy day with alot of overcast. With that in mind, I wanted to see how darker colors would work instead of my usual bright colored lures. I changed the red/chartreuse jig to a black jighead with a smoke/silver flake 2" squirmin' grub. After a couple casts, I had a bite and reeled it in. Turns out it was my very first crappie! A rather nice size one too. From then on, I had specks on my menu. Overall, I caught 5 specks and kept 3 of them. The longest crappie I caught today was 12" long.

Catch: Crappie "speck"
Size: 12"
Lure: 1/16oz Black jighead w/ 2" Squirmin' Grub (smoke/silver flake)



Here's a photo of all three getting ready to be filleted.

Monster Bowfin @ Mullet Lake Park

Another night at Mullet Lake Park for some night fishing with my friends Kyle and Zack. A few nights ago the line action was consistant with alot of bowfins biting in the area off the boat dock. Tonight started out good then really slowed down to nothing towards the end of the night. I brought some frozen cut shad for bait. Within an hour, I had caught the first fish again. It was a bigger bowfin than the one I caught before. I reeled him in on my Wild Cat rod and landed it pretty easily. Once I confirmed it was a bowfin, I used my fish grips to lock on its jaw and grabbed my scale. The scale read 5 lb 11 oz on this one! Shortly after releasing this monster, Zack almost had one but it broke his line and got free. The action shut down after that with no bites from then on.

Catch: Bowfin "Mudfish"
Weight: 5 lb 11 oz
Bait: cut shad

Shad Derby Update - Another 16" American Shad

I last reported that I was tied with the derby leader on a 17.5" American Shad. There is now an 18" shad recorded from David Simpson, a member of the Catfish1 Forum I've been talking to lately. He lives close to Mullet Lake Park and fishes shad every year, but he didn't know about the derby until I referred him to it. He's been helping me out by answering alot of my questions because this is my first season working the shad run. Now he's in the lead for the longest shad in the derby with 1 month remaining. Looks like I have some more work to do. :)

This morning I caught another 16" American Shad at Mullet Lake Park. It was the only catch of the day, though I had another hooked but it got away. During the fight the hook just came out of the fish, which I think may have been my error. I've caught and landed a total of 6 American Shad so far though.

I've also upgraded one of my poles from 6 lb mono to 20 lb Power Pro braided line, which has equivalent diameter of 6 lb mono. Basically I now have a much stronger line with the same line thickness I had before. The power pro casts very far and is much easier to tie knots, especially my favorite palomar knot.

February is here, and one month remaining in the derby. This month there is a Shad Rally scheduled for Feb 12th at C.S. Lee Park which I plan on attending. I was impressed with the last rally and all the free goodies we recieved. I hoping to close out this shad run with a bang, my goal is to land one that is at least 18" long. They're out there, I just have to go fishin' whenever I can. :)

Bowfin "Mudfish" @ Mullet Lake Park

Last night it was Kyle, Zack, and myself fishing at Mullet Lake Park. This time I had thawed some frozen cut shad that evening for bait. Cut shad is one of the best baits for catfish, or so I'm told. This is my first attempt with cut shad.
We fished off the boat dock. I was the first one to catch a fish that night, and it was a strange looking fish. One I have never seen before. I thought it was a channel catfish at first, but then I looked at it's dorsal fin, which was very long and extended all the way to the tail. It had a very boney jaw too, which was full of small sharp teeth. The next day I had to know what type of fish it was, so I looked through my book "Sport Fish of Florida" by Vic Dunaway. This an excellent book by the way, has everything you could possibly catch in Florida. It didn't take long to identify the fish we had caught, a Bowfin or commonly known as Mudfish. Here's a drawing of the bowfin:



I ended up only catching one bowfin that night, but there was alot of activity on the lines. Just like the Longnose Gar, the boney jaw makes it difficult to set a hook. The one bowfin I caught was 3 lb 9 oz. Kyle caught one too that was 2 lb 9 oz. I learned something interesting about the Bowfin as well. It has an air-bladder that functions somewhat like a lung. They are often seen gulping air when they are out of water. I didn't notice this myself, but thought that was interesting.

Here's a picture of the 3 lb 9 oz Bowfin I caught that night. The poor lighting at the dock makes it difficult to get a good picture. I used the Carolina Rig which cut shad as bait.

Fishing Florida Radio

After catching that 17 1/2" American Shad a few days ago, I was invited by co-host Steve Chapman to give Fishing Florida Radio a call on Saturday morning to talk about my catch. I called around 8:30am and was able to talk to Steve for a few minutes. He asked what I used to catch the shad, where I caught it, and what time of day. It was a brief discussion but regardless, I was happy to be part of the show. As a thank you for calling in, they are mailing me a prize pack. Not sure what's in that prize pack, but I guess we'll find out next week!

Today I took my dad and my son Cody to Mullet Lake Park to go fishing. This was my first time fishing with my dad in about 15 years or so. My first cast, BITE! It was something big and it made a fast getaway. My drag was singing and then snap, my line broke pretty quick. I'm guessing it was a big Largemouth Bass and it's unfortunate I couldn't land it. The rest of the day was pretty slow and relaxed. I caught 2 little Largemouth Bass using an Arkie Twirl Tail (pink jighead / yellow glo body) and a Creme Spoiler Shad (Black Back). Both were under a pound. Surprised to say no American Shad caught today either. When I got home and checked in with my online fishing buddies, one of them said they were on fire this morning at the same location we were at. He said he caught 6 shad and hooked at least 15, nothing over 16" though. I think we arrived a little too late for the shad action today because we got there around 11:30AM. As long as nobody beats my 17 1/2" I'll be fine with that, LOL.

My Favorite American Shad Lures/Jigs

I want to briefly review some of the lures/jigs I've been using so far to catch American Shad and provide recommendations in order of preference. So far I've caught 5 American Shad this year, from 12" to 17 1/2". Four of them were caught on the Arkie Twirl Tail jig, with one more caught on a Crappie Thunder. I haven't had much luck with the spoons yet, but there were alot of reports that the gold spoon has caught several shad early in the season. So I will put spoons at the bottom of the list right now. The shad darts are another lure I have tried, but only managed to catch a little largemouth bass. By the end of the shad run, I should have a pretty good idea of what produces and what doesn't. As of right now, the best colors to use are pink and yellow. Anything small with those two colors should work well.

1. Arkie Rigged Twirl Tail 1/32 oz (Pink jighead / Yellow Glow body)
2. Road Runner Crappie Thunder 1/16 oz (Electric Chicken)
3. Nungesser Shad Darts (various colors)
4. Nungesser 1" Spoons (gold or silver)

January 28 report: I fished Mullet Lake Park again today and caught another 16" American Shad. This time it was on the Road Runner Crappie Thunder in Electric Chicken color. Unfortunately that was the only fish I caught today. Here's a photo of today's 16" shad with my new net. =)

Tied for 1st Place Shad Derby! 17.5"

Today I set out to Mullet Lake Park again, at 10:00AM as always. The bite was slow to start again, but then around 11:00 AM I hooked a big american shad. This one was hefty and very strong. It made forceful darts making my drag sing as I'm allowing it to wear itself down. With 6 lb test line, I had to be careful with this one. It made at least 2 leaps out of the water. I was afraid the hook would pop out but thankfully it didn't come loose. As I got him closer to the bank, I reached for my net. As I carefully placed my net down in the water, the shad darted the other way. It wasn't ready yet! So I carefully turned the fish around so it would swim towards my net again. It eventually just swam right into the net. SCOOP! Got one! I knew it was big but I wasn't sure how big. It actually measured 17 1/2" long from nose to fork of tail and weighed 3 lb! At that moment I realized that I'm actually tied with first place in the Shad Derby. The 2 longest shads so far have been 17 1/2" each.
After that I had another shad hooked today and it was big as well, but then all of a sudden it freed itself from my line. The line didn't break and I still had my jig on. A good shake of it's head probably popped the hook out. Regardless, it was still a great day of fishing. Today I used the same pink jig head with yellow swirl tail. Here's the 17 1/2" from today. Did I mention I'm tied for first place? :P

14" and 12" American Shad @ Mullet Lake

It was alot of fun yesterday catching my first shad. I emailed my pictures to enter the 2011 Shad & Crappie Derby for the 16" shad yesterday. I know it's not the longest shad but anyone who submits a picture gets entered into a drawing. By the way, the longest shad so far is 17.5". So close!
Also last night I went to Walmart and purchased a net so I could just scoop my catches out of the water. Remembering yesterday I couldn't land that one big shad since it broke my line, a net would've been ideal for that situation.

This morning me and my brand new net went to Mullet Lake Park before the afternoon thunderstorms. I arrived at around 10:00AM. The weather was nice and better yet, there were no boats on the water. Winds were strong however in my favor as they helped me cast further. In the 3 hours I was out, the fishing was pretty slow. Though I still managed to land 2 more American Shad today! I had a 14" and a 12". The ticket seems to be those pink jigheads with yellow twister tails, they are working really well so far. I also tried silver spoons, shad darts, and white twister tails but no bites. Definitly going to be shad fishing some more these next couple of weeks because once the shad are gone, I have to wait another year before they come back to the river.

1st American Shad of the Derby!

This morning I gathered my gear and headed out to C.S. Lee Park for some shad fishing. When I got there at 10:00 AM, I talked with another boat fisherman who had just returned to the dock. The man said that nobody has caught anything this morning, including his pro fisherman friends. I had a bad feeling about the area after hearing this report, so I left and decided to try Mullet Lake Park instead. So I did. I arrived at Mullet Lake, I walked my things out to the river bank and setup a fishing spot. My first lure was a small 1" silver spoon, nothing. So I took that off and put on a pink jighead with a yellow twister tail. I fished this lure and then it came, the bite. My drag was singing as I'm reeling and trying not to snap the line. Basically playing the fish in the water until it tired itself. The shad was making jumps out of the water, going this way and that way. As soon as I wore the fish out, I tightened my drag and began reeling him in. It was a BIG shad. As soon as I got him close to the bank, I tried to lift him out and then SNAP! The line broke and there goes my fish with my lure attached to his mouth. I was excited, thrilled, and disappointed...alot of emotions. As I was putting on another jig, my hands were shaking from the adrenaline rush. LOL. It seemed like forever, but I was ready again. I casted out to the same spot, nothing. Casted again, and BOOM another shad. So here we go again, the jumps, the singing drag, the fish trying to shake loose. But this one I was determined to land. After a few minutes of wearing down the fish, I got him close to the bank where I was. This time I got on my knees and carefully lifted the fish out. I GOT HIM! It was a 16" American Shad that weighed 2 lb 2 oz. Boy, was I excited! I had finially caught my first American Shad of the 2011 derby! These fish are amazing to catch. I'm definitly hooked on shad fishing. =)