Upper Delaware River Shad Flies and Tips

Featured below are two fly patterns (well...they're really small jigs) that I use on the Upper Delaware River during the spring shad run.   I'll call them flies since I'm using a fly rod and reel ( a nine foot six weight fly rod) while fishing these.   You can  call them jigs, lures, flies - whatever.   Semantics aside -  these work very well year in and year out.

"Zsa-Zsa" in hot pink with Krystal Flash in thirty second ounce created and manufactured by Brian Wiprud of Brooklyn, New York.    Brian has plied the waters up here for many a year and his articles have appeared in Stercho and O'Brien's "Mid Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide".  A great fly.

Midget shad dart in chartreuse/orange and chartreuse/white in twenty fourth ounce purchased at Kurt Hagemann's Tackle Emporium in Shohola, Pennsylvania - a mere walk to the Big D.    Good shape, flourescent tail and nice laquered color which won't chip.  Well, eventually it will chip but not after your third cast like so many others.    

Grab a few from Kurt and if you need a trim he also cuts hair.  By the way, Kurt is one of our "not ready for prime time" correspondents at The Times Herald Record's "The Guide to where they're biting", the premiere weekly fishing report for the Catskill-Pocono-Delaware River region at: www.th-record.com/fishing

Best bets for Upper Delaware River shad fishing:

1. Late April through late June depending on how cool and wet our spring is.

2. Water temperature: 52 to 66 degrees

3. Water levels: Below three feet

4. Location: At the tail outs of the riffles and rapids.  Also where the river pinches up to create a funnel.

5. Time of day: Early morning and after 4:00pm until 7:00pm.

Click me to get back upstream.