Friday, May 28, 2010

Gizzard Shad

I caught a new species on the fly rod...Gizzard Shad.  The day had started out as a trip for panfish.  I went out to a local lake at first light to play with some bluegills.  I heard a bit of splashing down in the creek below the lake's dam.  I went down to investigate and found water filled with good sized Gizzard Shad.  I forgot all about the blue gills and spent a few hours with these guys.  Caught a mess of them up to about 18"-20" long.  They put a serious bend in my 5wt Hardy glass rod.
Fly Detail 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I've never seen one that big. The only gizzard shad I've seen we used for bait for stripers in Lake Hartwell (SC).

    Nice catch.

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  2. Some of these fish were better than 20"! I never new they were around. I did a bit of asking around and turns out they come up river to spawn every spring. They are around for a few weeks than gone... Most of the folks I talked to said "don't waste your time with them because you can't catch them on bait or lures" I guess they never tried flies!

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