Delaware River Shad

by Thorne Sparkman

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May and June are tragic months to be an addicted fly fisherman. Mullet have invaded the Florida Keys with tarpon in hot pursuit, stripers and bluefish begin their migration into New England waters, and Hendricksons, Drakes and other big bugs are hatching in eastern trout stream. Yet as the days grow in length, I feel depressed: with so much fishing to be done, even the angler who fishes constantly misses more fishing opportunities in May and June than at any other time of year. Trapped in Manhattan, the anti-depressant I reach for at this time of year is the telephone receiver. The call I make is to the "Shad Hotline" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The American shad (Alosa sapidissima), also known as the Delaware, Susquehanna, or American Shad, is an anadromous fish: it spends most of its life in the saltwater, but migrates into rivers from Florida to Canada in the spring to spawn. Once in the river, the shad are accosted by hundreds of anglers celebrating annual shad festivals in towns like Bethlehem along the Delaware river. Even if they elude the anglers and spawn in the headwaters hundreds of miles from the ocean, some shad will die by early July, and others return to the ocean to spawn again.

Like other members of the herring and shad families, the shad is a prehistoric looking creature with large scales and a deep body. With a dark, forked tail and a distinctively bony gill plate and lower jaw, the American Shad resembles a tarpon, except that its lower jaw, fits neatly inside its upper jaw. The Susquehanna and Hudson Rivers both have excellent runs of shad which are harvested both commercially and recreationally, but I prefer to chase shad in the clear cold currents of the upper Delaware River.

I had the privilege of sharing my annual pilgrimage this year with outdoor journalist Fen Montaigne and our Guide John. Drifting on the upper Delaware river is always a mesmerizing experience, and as I stepped into the raft last month, I was reminded how truly wild the Delaware river is. The river flows virtually uninterrupted from the confluence of the East and West Branches near Hancock, New York to the Delaware Bay in New Jersey. Broad but rarely more than eight feet deep, the river whisked us over acres of freshwater flats as schools of suckers darted from their shallow holds to escape our shadow. Clearly visible too against the bottom were the eels which have also migrated from the saltwater to spawn.

I've heard of the saltwater species Ladyfish called a "poor man's tarpon" because of its appearance and its jumping ability but the shad could be a freshwater competitor for that title. The migrating shad, some of which weigh up to ten pounds, are strong and determined fighters that can make line melt from the reel when they turn to race downstream.

Like the trout of the upper Delaware, the shad are usually found in the faster riffle sections of the river where they pause during the course of their migration to gain the strength to run the rapids. Unlike trout however, which prefer a sheltered lie in the proximity of strong currents, shad often favor the river's main channel or the channel's border or seam. While shad will pause behind large rocks in the midst of currents or in eddies along the bank like trout do, their preferred holding spots are slightly different from those of trout.