A report from SteveT
I haven't been doing much fishing for this time of the year, but Henny and I finally made it out to Sacramento to do some shad fishing.
According to the California Department of Fish and Game the American shad, an East Coast species, was introduced on the West Coast in the Sacramento River in 1871 and can now be found throughout the state, although they aren't very common south of Monterey.
The American River is a very popular place to fly fish for shad as well as other species. The river begins in the upper Sierras, flows west through the foothills and into Folsom Lake then Lake Natomas. It continues out of Nimbus Dam, becoming a 23-mile stretch called the Lower American River. It continues moving west where it finally meets the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento.
The weather has been unusually cool (not in the 90's) and the American River has been running very high (8,00 cfs vs 3,000 cfs).
I did some wading in the mid morning and threw about 100 casts but got no grabs while Henny was lounging in her chair on the bank.
In the evening Henny and I did a guided shad trip and she out-fished me 7 to 2. No great numbers, but they were all big females. The shad season began very late this year and it will probably last another month.
