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January 2025 Shad Fishing Report

Probably the Largest American Shad I have ever caught!

What a January of shad fishing it has been in Florida! It has been many years since I have seen an early run of fish like this, and the fishing has been exceptional! Here are some highlights from the month!

I Almost Killed Ray Today

On January 3rd, I fixed the Sportspal to the Jeep, loaded up the gear and met Ray to take the first trip of the new year out to Tosohatchee. I won’t continue to drone on about the road conditions out there, but will say it is a mess, and leave it at that. After 45 minutes of kidney rattling, bladder shaking navigation of said mess we made it to Long Bluff. Not surprisingly we were the only vehicle there.

With water levels at 4.6ft on the SR50 gage, the river was still on the high side of wadable but most of our spots were accessible. Another foot and we would have full reach of all the water we wanted to fish. We made the quick run up to the first junction and fished both the ultralights and switch rods. We spent about 20 minutes fishing the area. While we saw good activity up top, catches were limited to small crappie. We decided not to waste too much time and made the run downstream.

Upon arriving at the 7 Palms run, we found the predicted 10mph NNW wind was more like 15-20mph, which proceeded to stack the water up particularly at the upstream bend. We also found about a dozen alligators right where we wanted to start fishing, one of which did not want to yield the spot. After getting some close-up pictures, I scared him off by standing up quickly from a squatted position. Have you ever wondered how far a gator swims when it dives in the water? Sometimes it is not very far at all. Ask me how I know.

After running the gator off, I made maybe a 40ft cast with the ultralight and began my retrieve. About 4-5ft from where I was standing, I felt a bump, set the hook, and then felt a strong, slow, and steady pull that ran me well into the spool. I had clearly snagged my buddy who did not want to yield the spot. Thankfully dropping the rod tip and pointing it in the direction of the “fish,” then tightening the drag down bent the light wire hook before the great beast spooled me. Fun times.

NNW wind is never ideal on the St. Johns but we worked the area thoroughly and did not find shad before moving downstream. Here, Ray took the high ground at the split while I waded in and worked further upstream with the switch rod. I managed a few panfish. Ray on the other hand hooked a very nice shad that when it jumped, had both of us excited. I grabbed my net to help him land the fish, and as soon as I lifted it, I knew it was something special. I would say it was every bit of 3lbs and Ray can tell you the length, as he got some measurements and a couple of pictures to submit to the Shad & Crappie Derby. It was definitely a trophy and could be in the running to win. Seems right considering he already has his picture on the front of this year’s derby token!

A trophy Shad caught by Ray

We continued downstream to the cypress stand and fished that run very thoroughly until late in the day. There was absolutely no surface activity, and again I only managed a couple of panfish. There were no shad to be found.

So far, this sounds like any other report south of 50 early in the season, right? Crappy Road? Check. High water? Check. Wind? Check. Alligators? Check. Spotty Fishing? Check. So, what’s with the dramatic title? This is where things get interesting…

Headed back upstream, we wanted to fish a spot we frequent with a significant eddy current. There is a small creek that drains out of it into a surrounding slough that I usually like to pull the canoe into so we can access the high banks and keep it out of the wake of passing boats. I have done this dozens of times. This day as we approach the opening at idle, it becomes apparent to me that I have hugged the port side bank too closely and between the downstream current and my limited range of motion to make a port side turn, I was going to have to abort. You see, I have a tiller extender on my outboard, and it also has a universal joint on it that gives me a push/ pull ability to control the boat under way. It makes things more comfortable than contorting my body all day to utilize the short tiller handle. It does however have one drawback. That universal joint, particularly when utilized along with an added aftermarket seatback on my bench severely limits my ability to make a sharp left turn.

In a situation like this, I would generally handle the issue in one of two ways. One, I would just defer to the starboard and loop around to come in at a better angle. Two, I would quickly flip the seatback down and then complete the portside turn as I have done many times before. Today I chose the latter and told Ray to hold on. I placed the tiller extender in my left armpit, stand up slightly, and use my right hand to flip the seatback down. In doing so, in what seemed like an instant (but also slow motion if that makes sense,) the seatback knocked the tiller extender out of my armpit into the water and the water tension proceeded to spin it to FULL THROTTLE and drag the tiller completely out of my reach!

At this point the boat starts to spin around its center axis and at about the 180-degree point, Ray shouts, “what are you doing captain!?!?,” as we are now going BACKWARDS, and he fully believes I have gone into “Extreme Boat Docking” mode and was about to show him how to back this bad boy into the “crick!” It quickly becomes apparent to him that I am not, as we complete our first 360. We then complete a second 360, which is at a significantly sharper angle, and as we nearly tip over, we take on the wake of the first, instantly swamping the boat. At this point I remember I am wearing my dead man’s switch, yank an arm’s length of cord and the outboard does not stop. While holding that length, I yank another arm’s length of cord, and again, the outboard DOES NOT STOP! You see, being that I have a tiller extender, I had attached two lanyards together to ensure I would not pull the kill switch inadvertently while normally operating the boat, figuring that if ever got ejected, it would still kill the motor. It never occurred to me that I might need it while still IN THE BOAT.

As we come around on our THIRD 360, we take on more water, I yank another length of cord and the outboard shuts off right as the bow speeds up the cutbank. Ray, not really understanding what was going on, is strangely cool as a cucumber and just says “what the heck was that?” I on the other hand, am sh*tting my pants! I once read some marketing material from Sportspal for the S-15 that said with its foam sponsons, and foam liner, you could fill the boat with water with two full grown men and gear, and it would still float. I can now confirm this to be true firsthand. While the bow rested on the cutbank, more than half the boat was full to the gunwales. It took me 15 minutes of pumping the hand bilge to clear the water.

As I recounted the situation and apologized to Ray profusely, I realized what I had done wrong. While I have completed the “flip-the-seatback” maneuver 100 times before, I always put the motor in neutral before standing. In my haste, or likely my complacency, I had not done so this day. I have since made some mental notes, procedural changes, and shortened my lanyard to prevent this from happening again.

Okay, maybe the title is little melodramatic. I made a dumb mistake, but we stayed calm and worked through the situation. No harm was done but, I still wanted to share the details of this incident to remind everyone to stay alert, and do not get lost in complacency. Accidents can happen in an instant, and if this had happened with something faster than a 6hp or on a less stable boat, the story may have ended much differently. Be safe out there!

After the fiasco, we did fish the spot for a bit, and I managed a giant bowfin, but we ultimately decided to call it quits while we were ahead to ensure we got out of Toso before sunset.

A Trophy Day out of CS Lee

On January 12, I dropped my girls off at school and made my way to CS Lee. I was on the water by 9:00am and ran down to the mouth of the Econ. It was chilly with temperatures in the low to mid 50’s until late in the day, and with a stiff 15-20mph NNW wind once again stacking the water up, I did not have high hopes.

I grabbed the switch rod, waded out and got to work. Still rigged with a floating Skagit head, a 10ft T3 tip, 5 ft of level leader, and an hourglass fly from my last trip, I worked against the wind to make casts, swinging the fly downstream, catching mussels on almost every cast. I changed flies to a bead chain Kip Tailed Clouser and still kept snagging mussels too often. With the water at 2.5ft on the Lake Harney gage, the T3 was overkill, particularly while fishing the sandy, crunchy flat we frequently find fish on. I hesitantly swapped tips to my 10ft intermediate sink tip to lighten the presentation. I say hesitantly because this tip is kind of a fluorescent see-through green color that to me, looks like a laser beam cutting through the tannic water of the St. Johns River flashing to the fish to swim in the opposite direction. I have never had much confidence in it, but you do what you have to do.

I caught several small panfish and then at about 10am, the wind laid down ever so slightly and I began to see surface activity around me, and the silver backs and sharply forked black tails of shad leaping out of the water in the middle of the channel. I waded further out, stretching the limits of my waist waders to gain reach that the NNW wind was taking from me, and made multiple presentations with different flies and stripping cadences to the fish I could clearly see and could not buy a bite. At some point, I looked back behind me to the east bank and saw a fairly large alligator with its head resting ever so softly on the bank, its body still submerged. While the water and outside temps were chilly and my boat was between the both of us, I decided not to risk it as I was by myself. I got up on the bank and ran it off, staying ankle deep until I saw him come up for air well downstream of me on the other side of the river.

American shad on the fly in the net
First Shad of 2025

After wading back out and making a couple of dozen more casts, I hooked, jumped, and lost two fish before landing my first shad of 2025. I proceeded to spend the next two hours working the run downstream 5 steps at a time, casting to any surface activity I saw and did not catch another shad.

At about 1:00, I decided to take a break and eat some lunch. About this time, the back of the cold front moved through overhead, the wind died down, and the water got glassy. This really turned the fish on, I could see surface activity all the way downstream to the split, and again clearly see the silver backs and forked tails of shad rolling and feeding. I made cast after cast, but what did they want? I knew this was not spawning activity (where they will not generally take a fly,) as this was midday with bright blue skies, and that washing activity looks entirely different to the eye.

At this point, I decided to tie on an orange and white Comet, an old standby that I keep in the box that has worked well in the past when the fish seem finicky. I also decided to mix up the presentation and try more of a finesse technique that I almost forgot about. It is a technique that I often used when I first started using the switch rod, but had stopped using in favor of a traditional swing and/ or actively stripping the fly back to me. It is sort of a tightline or highstick technique. I will try my best to describe it. First you make a cast, quartering slightly upstream, keeping the rod high and the shooting line tight to the bright colored backend/ butt (indicator section) of the head (mine is orange.) Not tight enough to drag the head towards you, just tight enough to keep in contact with the head, and follow the head with your rod tip. As the shooting head quarters downstream of you ever so slightly, just lift the colored section and softly make a mend behind, adding a J to the line in the water. The butt of the head should be back upstream off your upstream shoulder. Again, keep tight to the head, and follow the head with your rod tip. As the butt of the head again quarters downstream of you, begin to lowering the rod, pointing at the butt of the head, and pull in the slack of the shooting line in slowly in 2-3 foot lengths, keeping tight to the head. Continue to slowly pull in 2-3ft of shooting line each strip until you fully retrieve the shooting line. The strikes usually come after the mend as it dead drifts, as you are dropping the rod tip, or as you retrieve the remaining shooting line. I think the tightline helps you feel strikes you might miss if the shooting line is in the water.

Using the above technique, I caught fish on every 3-5 casts and quickly got double digits. I am not entirely sure what the fly looks like under water, but I suspect it is dead drifting/ sinking at the beginning of the swing and then rises at an accelerated rate as the whole thing comes tight. While the fly dead drifts, the innate action of the hackle pulsates naturally in the current and can induce strikes after the mend. Whatever the fly does, it works!

Being content with double digits, I decided to run into Puzzle Lake to check a few areas that can produce without having to cross open water (something I don’t like to solo in the canoe.) I was expecting to see surface activity everywhere up there as well, but it was absolutely still. I decided not to blind cast for fish that may or may not be there, and head back downstream where the action was.

I ran down to a spot on the west bank that I had not fished in years. Once upon a time the west bank produced more numbers than the east for me, but it has been a very long time. There was surface activity there, so I give it a shot. It did not disappoint, and I caught what seemed like ever increasing sizes of fish, until my last Comet quite literally fell apart. I tied on a multicolored Kip Tailed Clouser and on the third or fourth cast, caught the largest American shad I have seen in my 15 years of fishing for them, a real trophy of a fish! I took some quick video and a couple of pictures, then released her to do her thing. Here is the video…

By the way, that intermediate tip I mentioned at the beginning of this story, yea, I now have full confidence in it! Laser beam or not, the fish don’t mind it at all. Knowing it would be hard if not impossible to beat that fish, I put the rod down and watched the sun go down. The activity continued well in to dusk, and on the way back to the boat launch, there were shad rolling and washing from the mouth of the Econlockhatchee River all the way to the bridge. It was truly impressive!

A Cast and (not so much) Blast out of CS Lee

On January 16 I returned to CS Lee with Todd for a cast and blast session. Well, that was the plan anyway, but the fishing was so good we didn’t bother taking the guns out of their bags. Plus, Todd had to be off the water by midday, so we ended up focusing on fishing.

Like the Tuesday before, the morning was windy and chilly with the air temps hovering in the 50’s most of the day. Also similar to the last trip, the fishing picked up at around 10am, then really turned on at around 1:00 when the cold front pushed through.

There were several people on the water with us this day, including Sherry and Paul Parker, Mike Danagher and Rene Giard. I believe Sherry and Paul were the winners of the day with 28 to the boat, and Mike and Rene managed 13. I managed double digits again using the technique I detailed in the previous post. Todd got his first shad of 2025 and missed a few others.

It was another excellent day of fishing from both sides of the river. Unfortunately, after dropping Todd off at the ramp and returning to my spot on the west bank, I picked up my switch rod to find the tip was broken about a foot from the tip. I am not entirely sure what happened, whether it got snagged on something, cracked do to vibrations in the makeshift spring clamp rod holders I use on the canoe, or it just gave way from horsing too many large fish in, but I was pretty bummed. I have had that rod for 10 years and have a lot of great memories with it. Unfortunately, it cannot easily be replaced as it was a custom rod built on a Batson Rainshadow blank that I bought secondhand. I am not a rod builder so can’t build a replacement. While I did use my single hander for a bit and caught fish, my heart was not in it. I just hung out, ate a sandwich and had a frosty beverage, watching the activity until evening. I even saw a couple of otters, one which looked to be gnawing on the head of a blueback herring. Pretty cool!

On the bright side of things, Eric Roach reached out to me as he had a 6wt Echo Swing he was no longer using and made me an offer I could not refuse! I am looking forward to putting it through its paces soon.

Last Trip of January 2025

I am going to keep this one short as the January report is pretty long already. Last minute on Sunday Ray and I decided to fish and met up at 9:30 to head down south. Being down one car, Ray generously picked me, the boat, and all the gear up in his pickup truck and we hit Toso. We decided to run straight downstream and then work our way back up throughout the day, hitting all of our normal haunts. With the gage at SR50 at 3.69ft most everything was high and dry.

Most of our stops produced fish, but you had to work for them. The fish seemed to be positioned in “boxes” and if you deviated a foot or two outside of that in any direction, you would not get a bite. Being down a switch rod, I had to fish a little more technically to find them, not just using the short-medium-long cast then take 10 steps method, but also incorporating different mends in between to work different parts of the water column to find them. A dual fly setup with an orange and white Shad Dart up top and an orange and white Comet below helped double my chances, and both caught fish.

I have had several people ask about the 7 Palms hike over the last month, and I hate to say it, it may not be in the cards this year. We just have not had a lot of luck there so far. While the water levels are great, there is not a lot of current, even with the wind in the right direction. We saw a fleet of like 10-12 commercial cast net boats working in unison that day, and I am pretty sure they have scraped every square inch of bottom on each run. I assume the 7 Palms run was not spared. First Junction also did not produce.

The run seems to be continuing strong downstream near the Econ, so I look forward to seeing what February brings!

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