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First Trip of 2021- Plenty of Crappie but no Shad

SR46 Bridge crossing the St. Johns River

Just a quick report. After recovering from Covid-19, I was ready to finally start my season today. I met up with Todd at 10am at CS Lee. When we arrived the weather was still in the mid 40’s and the wind was brisk. Thankfully I had packed an Under Armor thermal layer and had a wind breaker in the dry bag, as I had opted not to grab a jacket on the way out.

We packed the boat and set out to do some fishing, stopping at the creek mouths first. With the gage at 3.5 feet, the west bank is still partially submerged, but wadable ankle to thigh high. The current was booking, still at around 3000cfs, and a 10 foot T3 tip and hourglass eye fly was not enough to bounce bottom here. Todd fished a T8 tip and felt like he was getting down, but neither of us hooked shad. After I caught a little red belly, we decided to move upstream to the mouth of the Econ.

The east bank at the mouth is wadable shin to waist high, which made things chilly. Add to that a good 10-12 northwest wind, and the chop was stacking up a good foot. Even with the backup, the current still warranted T8’s and heavy flies. I switched tips and worked the likely areas without a hookup. Todd on the other hand found the crappie hole, and pulled numerous slabs out on a pink fly. These were some of the biggest crappie we had seen in this section of river in a good while.

Eventually, the cold and wind in our face took its toll and we decided to poke around on the west bank, which was again wadable shin to waist high, but found no takers.

After a quick stop at a creek mouth that Todd likes that can produce fish on days where they are warming up in the shallow water, on a whim, we decided to run down to the big turn downstream of the Jolly Gator, as it had been several years since either of us had fished it. I recalled catching shad there early in the season, but it was always a gamble, and a bit more of a commitment in the kayaks. Under motor, it is a quick run downstream and back up if there was no action.

When we arrived, we saw more activity than anywhere else on the river all day. Birds were diving at the confluence of the slough and main channel coming out of the turn, and we did see some surface activity, but the water level on the west bank was still pretty deep, and made reaching the main water of interest difficult, even with the switch rods. If you are going out by boat this week, you may want to take a look and anchor up just outside the main current.

crappie caught on a kip tailed clouser

We decided to call it a day around 3:00. There were plenty of nice crappie to be had today, and had we really focused on them, we probably could have filled a nice sized cooler. They definitely liked the pink or orange flies, and were hanging in holes or just outside the main current. However, we are shad fanatics, and nothing else quite quenches the thirst… except maybe a cold beer! 🙂

2 Comments

  1. Dave

    Glad you recovered from your infection. You are a great writer and sharer on this valuable information.

    Where would you recommend a new shad fisherman start this year? Lemon Bluff?

    • chelenthal

      Thanks Dave! If you are new, I would say launch at CS Lee and focus near the mouth of the Econ once it starts to thicken up a bit. That is where most of us start our love affair with shad. Lemon Bluff can have a good number of fish, but the water is deep so you either have to troll to find them, or use a fish finder. Then once you find him, you have to dredge with heavy fly gear to catch them. Not as much fun as swinging flies upstream. Good luck!

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