Captain Ahab
Well-known member
2 PEOPLE
TOTAL LANDED: 78
TOTAL HOOKED: 150 plus
TIME SPENT FISHING 4.5 HOURS
LOCATION: CONOWINGO RIVER, MD
I returned from Striper fishing Sunday to a telephone call from Big Dave E. He was pumped with a report of incredible Shad fishing at the Conowingo River Hydroelectric Dam. Between himself and four friends they landed well over 400 fish in a long Sunday outing. He wanted to go back Monday (yesterday) for more even though he claimed his arms were a little sore.
I quickly made a few phones calls and moved my schedule around putting off some work - I was glad I did.
We arrived at the Conowingo at about 4 pm armed with shad darts, flutter spoons and assorted other gear. We hit the river and found shad jumping and boiling everywhere. Starting about a quarter mile from the spillway area Dave E immediately hooks into a very large American. He then lands an aerobatic Hickory that jumped a good four to five feet out of the water during the fight. I screwed around trying a few different rigs before "borrowing" the white dart and silver spoon rig that Dave E was using. Almost immediately I get a hit and miss the hook set.
Dave lands a few more fish and is already at six to my zero. I miss a few more and then let my line swing just a little deeper and am immediately rewarded with a drag screaming hit, I fought the fish as it ripped drag and finally landed a monster American shad - my first of this year: Dave E was a little way upstream and was fighting a large fish so I used the camera timer to snap a quick pic.
I kept swinging and missing or just coming up empty as Dave E kept hauling fish. He landed fish number 12 while I was still on 3. I then picked it up a little and had 7 by the time he hit fish 20.
Dave E lands fish 30 and I am at 12 - he is kicking my ***. Dave E. put on a shad catching show, he found his "sweet spot" and kept hauling fish while I struggled. I switched lures, tried some larger spoons, spinners and different weights. Dave E kept landing fish.
Suddenly the sirens went off and the red lights started flashing everywhere - they were going to do a release from the dam. We scrambled for higher ground and move stuff up the rocks to a safe place. I was justing getting the touch at this point and landed 6 fish in quick succession. Big Dave E just kept hauling, shouting out the number as he unhooked another fish.
The dam opened up and the river quickly rose about 5 feet - the flow was super strong in the area we were fishing and the shad scattered. We waiting almost an hour to see if they were gonna shut off the flow, reluctant to leave our honey hole. Here, you can see the water shooting out of the dam while Dave E waits on high ground:
We finally gave up and walked down stream to a slight eddy. As soon as we climbed down to the river, we noticed a thick swarm of some super small flies around us, so thick it looked like fog. They did not bite, but kept getting in our faces, ears, hair and everywhere else - very annoying. It was worth braving the bugs as this spot was thick with shad - Dave hits fish 44 as I land fish 24, a double header with both our fish jumping high on the river as we struggled to get them to land.
Dave E gave fish number 40 a love bite:
It is now starting to get dark and the flies are tremendous - Dave E. has his hood tightly around his head, not becuase it was cold (it was nice and warm) but to keep the bugs off his ears. I was, once again missing hook sets and we decided that we would leave when Dave E landed fish number 50. He landed fish 49 and I start yelling at him (while getting a mouthful of bugs) to hurry up and catch number 50 so we could get out of there. Finally, after I frantically dug bugs out of my eyes, ears , nose and hair, he hits 50
That is not snow in the photo - it is the huge swarm of flies
We ended the day with Esquired - 28, Dave E - 50. Losing never felt so good!
Dave E. has all of my pics on his camera so I will post them later.
TOTAL LANDED: 78
TOTAL HOOKED: 150 plus
TIME SPENT FISHING 4.5 HOURS
LOCATION: CONOWINGO RIVER, MD
I returned from Striper fishing Sunday to a telephone call from Big Dave E. He was pumped with a report of incredible Shad fishing at the Conowingo River Hydroelectric Dam. Between himself and four friends they landed well over 400 fish in a long Sunday outing. He wanted to go back Monday (yesterday) for more even though he claimed his arms were a little sore.
I quickly made a few phones calls and moved my schedule around putting off some work - I was glad I did.
We arrived at the Conowingo at about 4 pm armed with shad darts, flutter spoons and assorted other gear. We hit the river and found shad jumping and boiling everywhere. Starting about a quarter mile from the spillway area Dave E immediately hooks into a very large American. He then lands an aerobatic Hickory that jumped a good four to five feet out of the water during the fight. I screwed around trying a few different rigs before "borrowing" the white dart and silver spoon rig that Dave E was using. Almost immediately I get a hit and miss the hook set.
Dave lands a few more fish and is already at six to my zero. I miss a few more and then let my line swing just a little deeper and am immediately rewarded with a drag screaming hit, I fought the fish as it ripped drag and finally landed a monster American shad - my first of this year: Dave E was a little way upstream and was fighting a large fish so I used the camera timer to snap a quick pic.
I kept swinging and missing or just coming up empty as Dave E kept hauling fish. He landed fish number 12 while I was still on 3. I then picked it up a little and had 7 by the time he hit fish 20.
Dave E lands fish 30 and I am at 12 - he is kicking my ***. Dave E. put on a shad catching show, he found his "sweet spot" and kept hauling fish while I struggled. I switched lures, tried some larger spoons, spinners and different weights. Dave E kept landing fish.
Suddenly the sirens went off and the red lights started flashing everywhere - they were going to do a release from the dam. We scrambled for higher ground and move stuff up the rocks to a safe place. I was justing getting the touch at this point and landed 6 fish in quick succession. Big Dave E just kept hauling, shouting out the number as he unhooked another fish.
The dam opened up and the river quickly rose about 5 feet - the flow was super strong in the area we were fishing and the shad scattered. We waiting almost an hour to see if they were gonna shut off the flow, reluctant to leave our honey hole. Here, you can see the water shooting out of the dam while Dave E waits on high ground:
We finally gave up and walked down stream to a slight eddy. As soon as we climbed down to the river, we noticed a thick swarm of some super small flies around us, so thick it looked like fog. They did not bite, but kept getting in our faces, ears, hair and everywhere else - very annoying. It was worth braving the bugs as this spot was thick with shad - Dave hits fish 44 as I land fish 24, a double header with both our fish jumping high on the river as we struggled to get them to land.
Dave E gave fish number 40 a love bite:
It is now starting to get dark and the flies are tremendous - Dave E. has his hood tightly around his head, not becuase it was cold (it was nice and warm) but to keep the bugs off his ears. I was, once again missing hook sets and we decided that we would leave when Dave E landed fish number 50. He landed fish 49 and I start yelling at him (while getting a mouthful of bugs) to hurry up and catch number 50 so we could get out of there. Finally, after I frantically dug bugs out of my eyes, ears , nose and hair, he hits 50
That is not snow in the photo - it is the huge swarm of flies
We ended the day with Esquired - 28, Dave E - 50. Losing never felt so good!
Dave E. has all of my pics on his camera so I will post them later.
