St. Johns River Shad Report

St. Johns River Shad Report

Thank you for reading this St. Johns River Shad report. The weather this week was kind of yucky- gray, rainy, chilly, windy some days. I countered by fishing fresh water.

I’m running this again- it can’t get too much publicity. Again, we need to deal with some nonsense so ridiculous I can hardly believe it’s being considered.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection announces a meeting to which all persons are invited to discuss a Blue Origin (AMAZON/ Jeff Bezos) renewal permit using the Indian River Lagoon as an overflow dumping site.

Friday, January 30, 2026 – 4:00pm EST – Friday, January 30, 2026 – 7:00pm EST
3695 Lake Drive, Cocoa, FL 32926

First off, the date and time of this meeting has been scheduled so that the fewest possible number of people will attend. Second of all, with all the water quality problems in the lagoon, and all of the lip service about correcting them, why would this even be considered?

Fishing

I’d been hearing from a “reliable source” that there were shad in the St. Johns River, along with the native fishes. So I went to check it out.

Tuesday

Launched the Bang-O-Craft at 1030, got the last parking spot in the lot! Yes, it was busy out there. Headed to the Econ River mouth. There were quite a few boats, and fish breaking. I started with the spin rod, armed with a small crappie jig, and got my first shad of 2026 on my second cast. Switched to the fly pole immediately, with a fry minnow tied to the leader. Had a hot shad bite for about an hour, getting seven or eight. Then it slowed down.

Switched back to the spin rod, with a tandem rig of 1″ Creme Sassy Shad. Got a tiny bass, and a small redbelly, then something real hit. It turned out to be what Florida calls a “sunshine bass”, a stiped bass/white bass hybrid, the best fish of the day.

Got a couple more bass, one on a gurgler, then moved the boat out into the river. Got a few more shad. Saw fish breaking along the bank. Moved over there and starting tossing the gurgler again.

I’d never caught a crappie on a surface fly, but got about ten nice ones on that gurgler before they started saying no. Switched to a soft-hackle wet fly and picked up several more.

By now it was getting on into the afternoon, and I’d had quite a day, so I went home happy.

Wednesday

This is boring non-fishing stuff. I have pulmonary fibrosis, an awful, progressive, incurable disease. I take a drug called Ofev that slows the disease’s progression. I have been getting a grant from the Assistance Fund to help pay for it, since my insurance only covers 2/3rds of the $200 a pill cost. The Assistance Fund ran out of money for this particular program, so I am on their waiting list.

In the meantime, I needed to reorder my Ofev prescription. A call was made to the pharmacy. The co-pay was $2300. Well, that can’t happen. They gave me a list of other agencies that might provide assistance funding. I was able to find one, the PAN Foundation, but it took much of the day. No fishing Wednesday. And this story is probably not over.

Thursday

A cold front, complete with rain, came through in the early morning hours. Patrick Phillips met me at CS Lee Park at 1100 and we braved the cold and wind to try and catch some shad. We failed.

My first catch was an old bungee cord. Then I got an empty sardine tin. We changed spots, and we each got a fish, I a crappie, Patrick a bluegill.

At 1330 I loaded the boat on the trailer, having had quite enough of the 58 degrees, the 15-20 MPH wind, and the sky spitting at us. At least we weren’t skonked.

Friday

The Bang-O-Craft was launched at CS Lee Park at about 1130. My guest was the inimitable Alastair Worden, who had never fished for shad. I told him we didn’t get one yesterday, but he was OK with that. The air was cool, but the sky was cloudless and the sun was out, and perhaps most importantly, no wind. The day was gorgeous, and we went fishing.

 

 

 

It took only minutes to connect. Fishing was steady. We were both using tandem rigs, and only hooked one shad double, but the longest we went without a bite was 15 minutes of so. A few bluegills and a crappie crashed the party, too. The boat was loaded up about 1530, and a good time was had by all (except for maybe the fish).

That’s the St. Johns River shad report. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go walking! Stay active!

John Kumiski – https://spottedtail.com

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, ©John Kumiski 2026. All rights are reserved.