We have our winner and have added a new name to our leader board! Congratulations to Max “Shad Hog” McLaren on winning the 2025/2026 First Shad of the Season Contest! This football of a Hickory Shad was caught downstream of C.S. Lee on an orange fly on December 22, 2025. I don’t know about you, but I am itching to get out on the water! It is time to get out there and do some shad fishing!
Hello,
Shad have been a bucket-list species for me for a long time, as someone who is new to catch and release fishing around Orlando. I’ve been chasing shad on the econlockhatchee recently but haven’t had much luck seeing (or catching) any shad. I landed panfish and bass but the shad continue to elude me. Do you know if the shad can be caught this far upstream along the Econ in January? I scouted starting around the barr street trailhead down to the bridge near the Snow Hill trail. I bought streamers and crappie jigs this time around.
Best regards,
Rick
Hey Rick,
It is pretty early for those sections of the Econ (Barr and Snowhill.) The earliest I have had reports of shad being caught in good numbers on the Econ in January was on the section of river accessible from the Brumley Rd trailhead, and that was on MLK Day. So you may want to hike that section soon. I would say it would generally be another 2-3 weeks before Snowhill and Barr St are worth a serious look, but every year is different. Keep in mind the Econ has been low compared to the St. Johns for a while now, so there may not be enough current to entice American Shad up there in any good numbers this year. There will always be Hickories though, but who knows how far up they will run. If we get some decent rain in Central Florida, the levels on the Econ can jump dramatically, and that can cause a freshet that may get fish to veer from the St. Johns up the Econ. Keep your eye on the gages, but ultimately the only way to find out is to go fish. Tight lines!
There are a good number of shad along the Brumley Rd Trailhead, I went out and actually caught and released some! Mostly hickory shad, but I managed to also catch and release a good sized American shad as well. I really appreciate the resources that you have posted here, they helped me a lot with catching this bucket list fish!! I’m probably going to see if I can get a couple on flies later this month or in February.