First Shad

[Matt D]

After seeing a couple different shad reports from the Delaware recently, I was pretty pumped up and wanted to try to get my first shad. Since I am at college, I did not have to much tackle to work with. Just my ultra light trout rod and some lures. I was checking the weather all day and saw about an hour gap with no rain so I figured I would go give it a shot. I drove to a couple places and found some nice deep water by the bank with some pretty fast current. I only had about 20 minutes to fish before the rain was gonna be back on top of me but I gave it a go with some small curly tail jigs and phoebes. On my third cast I hooked into something but with the light tackle and heavy current I had trouble getting it back to me. It jumped a couple times and then popped off but at least i got to see that it was a shad. I hooked into one more on the small jig that also got away and another on the phoebe that came off. As the rain began to fall and I was thinking it wasn't gonna happen today I got one on the phoebe and finally got him in. Not to much size to him, he was only about 14 inches but I sure was excited to get my first one. Can't wait to go back again with some egg or bullet weights to help get down the lure down. Thanks for the reports from all who posted them, they are what helped make my day today!