A report from Will
When George and I got to Lodi, reports on shad runs or action was nonexistent. People were calling each other to see who might have gotten into shad. No luck. So on Memorial Day, Al decided to take us to a bass pond located in a cattle ranch. That was pretty bad. My brother, George, caught one bass. We heard, "Should of been here yesterday".
On Tuesday, Al decided to drift the Yuba River and look for shad. We drifted several miles, but no shad. Lots of suckers, few stripe bass and pikes. We took the day off on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we went to the American River. About a half mile from the launch point we ran into shad. In a couple hours George and I caught and released about 20 fish. Then we had lunch and went back to the same spot. The action picked up again to the point where we said, "We'll go when it's 50 fish or 7 o'clock, which ever came first.". We quit at 53. Al said that the shad are on the move at full moon, as it was on Thursday.
The river levels are low because of light rain and snowfall last winter. Al couldn't find fish in the usual places. On Friday, we went back to the American River and we caught a few fish in Thursday's spot. So we moved down and managed to catch 48 fish but they were scattered along the way. That is it for shad for me this year.
On July 22, I'll be in Mulege, Baha California Sur, Mexico, with Al for dorado.