Shad...A change of pace

What with all this unpredictable weather; on Sunday I decided to venture off the mountain in search of Shad on the American River. Two days before the flows at Nimbus Dam were ramped-up from 5000 to 7000cfs. In reality I know diddlysqaut about shad fishing ; having done it only twice before. So I relied on the advice of Al that the flow increase could slow things down a bit & make the shad more difficult to locate.

So I anticipated little in the way of fishing, but looked forward to visiting with a couple fly fishing buddies (we've been to Chilean Patagonia together)...catching-up with each others lives. I met Al Smatsky, who operates Excellent Adventures and Dan Mc Daniel (3-times president of the Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishing) early in Sacramento and we went to the American river (I have not idea where the put-in was)"Geez Al get-off the phone, I need a net job here!"
Action wasn't as torrid as what I've heard of shad fishing; but we were getting solid tugs and landing a few. The skies were overcast and there was an occassional drizzle, but very minor.

There were wild yellow irises throughout our drift. At lunch I chance to get close and admire them...

We were using 7 and 8 weight rods and casting 250-400 grain 30' heads; both integrated lines and shooting-heads with shooting lines. Regardless ro their samllish size the shad still put up strong struggles and good bends in th rods.