Shad Provide A Challenge

The American shad vaguely resembles a crappie, eats plankton like a kokanee and counts the lowly sardine as one of its close relatives.

To the thousands of Northwest anglers who will cast lures and flies along the Columbia and Snake rivers the next five to six weeks, the 2- to 7-pound silvery fish are more than the “poor man’s steelhead,” as they’ve been described.

They’re an excellent substitute for the vanishing salmon and steelhead runs. They may resemble crappies and are cousins to sardines, but they’re hard-fighting, spectacular game fish.

When they’ve got the current in their favor, they’re exciting fish that instinctively use their slab-sided bodies to foil too-eager anglers and they often clear the water in spectacular leaps.

As the steelhead and salmon runs fade, shad, like walleyes, rainbows, sturgeon and kokanee, almost certainly will become one of the fish of anglers’ choice along the Columbia and its tributaries.

Already, hundreds of coast anglers are joining inland fishermen along the streams to catch fish other than the legendary steelhead and chinooks.

Thousands of shad now are climbing fish ladders at the lower Columbia River dams. The counts are increasing dramatically nearly every day. By the time the shad run is over, more than 2 million fish are likely to be in the Columbia River system.

Shad move fast to their spawning areas. Females release eggs near the surface at night when water temperatures reach the mid-60s, eggs drift and settle and young shad hatch.

June is the big month for the lower Columbia River dams; 90 percent of each run are counted in June.

Two-thirds of the fish counted each year at Ice Harbor on the lower Snake are tallied in July. Nearly 50,000 were counted at Ice Harbor in 1993, the last year for which official counts are available. Not enough shad move over the dams above Ice Harbor to provide good fishing.

Anglers start fishing for shad near Bonneville Dam in late May. Last of the fishermen cast their lures and flies below Ice Harbor Dam in early July. Then it’s over until the next year.

Three highly productive fishing spots are the Bradford Island area at Bonneville Dam and below John Day and Ice Harbor dams. Of course, there are numerous other good fishing areas, but those are the best known.

Scores of anglers are fishing the Bradford Island area nearly every day.

The John Day and Ice Harbor dam areas are ideal for shore fishing.

Like steelhead and salmon, shad don’t feed actively after they enter freshwater. However, possibly out of curiosity or irritation, they take anglers’ lures and flies, sometimes readily, sometimes reluctantly.

Anglers don’t have to carry big assortments of lures or flies to hook shad. Spin fishermen use lightweight jigs, shad darts and small spoons. Popular colors are chartreuse and red. The lures are small and just heavy enough to sink well in heavy current.

Hundreds of shad flies have been created. However, Boyd Pfeiffer, author of a definitive book on shad fishing, says shad flies “are simple, relatively big, cheap and easy to tie, and generally pretty gaudy.”

Many fly fishers like streamer-type patterns. Other prefer patterns that have colorful bodies, a couple of wraps of white hackle for a collar and bead or yarn heads. Western fly fishers like bead chain or dumbbell eyes for their flies.

Fly fishers say shad avoid shiny flies, so they use only a few strands of Flashabou or Krystal Flash. They like colorful plastic chenilles.

Most use sinking or sink tip lines.

Because shad, like kokanee and crappies, have paper-thin mouths, experienced anglers are careful when they hook shad. Horse a shad, they say, and you’ll lose it.

Majority of anglers release shad even though the fish’s white, flaky meat is delicious, baked, fried or smoked. Reason: Bones.

Few anglers learn how to cut out the fine, numerous bones. The best way to prepare shad for the table is either to pressure cook the meat or wrap it in foil and bake it for a long time. The pressure cooking and long baking softens the bones enough so they can be eaten along with the meat.

Some fishermen kill female shad and take only the eggs, considered a good caviar substitute.

The shad’s time as a Northwest game fish has come.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review