Shad on the St. Johns
You’ll find American Shad in Florida’s St. Johns River between January and March. Like salmon, shad return to their natal rivers and eat nothing on their spawning run. Like salmon, migrating and spawning shad exist only on their own fat. Like Pacific salmon, St. Johns River shad die after spawning. I believe that shad are the St. Johns River’s only remaining native anadromous fish.
Why do shad and salmon respond to lures? No one really knows. They do respond though, so fishermen can catch them on rod and reel, with a spoon, or a jig, or a fly.
According to the McClane’s Standard Fishing Encyclopedia (published in 1965), “Shad begin entering the St. Johns, the southernmost limit of this fish, in late November or December. Limit catches are common after mid January. Popular spots to fish are near Deland at Crows Bluff, upriver past Blue Spring, and near Lake Monroe. But Lemon Bluff out from Osteen and the Lake Harney reaches are also productive.” More on this later. First let’s take a quick look at the biology of this fascinating fish.
Biology
In the spring, adult shad spawn when the water temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They like to spawn in four to eight feet of water, over sand or gravel. Unlike salmon, shad do not build nests. A female St. Johns shad weighs about four pounds. Males are half that size.
Fertilized eggs, gently rolling along the bottom, hatch in a few days. After hatching from its egg, a baby shad and all of his friends (shad of all sizes always travel in large schools) look like tiny eels. After 40 days or so they metamorphose into fish-like creatures. Life is not easy. Every larger fish in the river eats them.
They spend the summer around their birthplace. Once the autumnal water temperature drops to 60 degrees, they begin the outmigration to the sea. The survivors have reached the grand size of four inches or so when they reach the ocean.
Shad like that 60 to 70 degree isotherm. As the spring sun warms the water they follow the 60 to 70 degree line north, all the way to Canada’s Bay of Fundy. Along the way they eat plankton, filtering it from the water with their gillrakers. They in turn are eaten by larger predatory fish.
They spend the summer in the Bay of Fundy. As the water temperatures drop in the autumn they migrate south again. There are three major aggregations of winter non-spawning shad in the Atlantic, one of which is off the Florida coast. As the water warms in spring they move north again, back to the Bay of Fundy. After four years of this the fish have swum over 10,000 miles. They are mature, ready to return to the St. Johns to spawn, and die. Another generation of shad has passed.
Tackle
You can use any kind of tackle to catch shad. Trollers, common just a few years back, use open and closed face spinning and light plugging tackle. Six- or eight-pound test line is plenty. Popular lures include both the Drone-type spoons in size 00, and small jigs known as shad darts. These darts used to be tied with bucktail or marabou, but these days small soft plastic tails like those used on crappie jigs are popular.
I used to shad fish with an angler from the D.C. area. He would bring Potomac River shad rigs down here. This rig was tandem with a 1/8th ounce shad dart, usually red and yellow, and a silver size 00 Drone spoon. When fishing was good he would frequently hook doubles.
Because shad are sensitive to light levels and prefer subdued light, fly anglers generally use sinking lines. Flies run around size 6. They are usually weighted with lead dumbell eyes or lead wire. You should be catching a clam now and then! It’s good to carry a variety of colors since the fish are sometimes fussy.
On cloudy days I have seen the “not feeding” shad up on the surface, apparently chasing minnows. I have caught these fish using a four weight rod with a floating line and a #8 or #10 white streamer fly. I have had other anglers tell me that they caught shad on small gurglers in this situation.
I’ve also heard of fly anglers catching shad on small nymphs when the standard shad fly wouldn’t work. Carry a variety of flies and don’t be afraid to experiment if fishing is slow.
Regardless of what tackle you choose, expect to catch bluegills and other bream, crappie, small bass, and the occasional catfish or mudfish while shad fishing here.
Techniques
You can troll for shad. Use a small outboard to idle along, trolling your shad darts or spoons. Stay to the deeper parts of the river.
In addition to the spots mentioned above, the stretch of river between Mullet Lake Park and SR 46 and the section between Lake Harney and the mouth of the Econlockhatchee can produce well. Sometimes the fish go upstream past State Road 50.
If while trolling you find a concentration of fish, set anchor and cast. You want to cast at right angles to the current, giving the lure a chance to sink before you start your slow, fluttery retrieve.
Fly casters have success both from anchored boats and by wading. Again, cast across the current and mend the line. Give the fly a chance to sink before you start your retrieve.
Shad have thin tissues in their mouth. Don’t fight them hard or they will often tear off. A landing net will help seal the deal at the end of the battle.
The fly shop in Orlando will have information on where the fish are being caught, and what they’re being caught on. You can call, or better yet visit, Orlando Outfitters at 407.896.8220.
The fish tend to hold in deeper areas at bends in the river. Concentrate your efforts in those types of areas. Frequently they will give their presence away by flipping on the surface, so watch for that.
St. Johns shad seem to bite better in the afternoon. Don’t get out there at the crack of dawn. It’s usually a waste of good sleeping time.
Edibility
The Latin name of the American shad is Alosa sapidissima. “Sapidissima” roughly translates to “very delicious.” I can’t speak from personal experience, never having eaten a shad, but there are lots of recipes for both shad flesh and shad roe. George Washington was, among many other things, a commercial shad fisherman.
Prospects for the Future
The runs of shad in the St. Johns vary tremendously from year to year. Some years the fishing is excellent. Other years it’s hardly worth the effort.
I’ve seen two really strong shad runs in the St. Johns since I started fishing for them about 1985. One year the fish were concentrated just upstream of Lake Harney. You could fly fish for them from the bank by paying a small fee at the Morgan Alderman Ranch. The Backcountry Flyfishing Association had an outing there that year and at one point literally 25 fly anglers were all hooked up simultaneously.
Another time about twenty-five years ago the river was very low. We’d hike upstream a mile of so from Hatbill Park. That spot, for reasons known only to the shad, was teeming with them. My son Maxx and I met Rodney Smith and his son Jake there for an afternoon’s fly fishing. After we got tired of catching them with fly rods the two boys began catching them by hand. It was that good.
Author Ruth Haas-Castro writes, “Stock abundances of American shad are well below historic levels of the early 20th century as a result of overfishing and habitat destruction.” Look what we’ve done to the Atlantic salmon. Shad would also be almost extinct, except they happen to be slightly more adaptable than salmon.
Let us hope that the next run will be epic. There are few things more pleasant than fishing for shad on the St. Johns River on a sunny March afternoon.