Shad fishing and Ollies first fish!!!!

So I had to reschedule my guiding this weekend as they were carp trips and most of the sloughs and back bays have been deserted of carp with the cooler then average temperatures. Steph and I decided to take the boys out shad fishing for a few hours. Lots of firsts...Becket (10mos old) had never been out on the boat and Oliver has tried a few times but never landed a fish (I refuse to do the fish farm thing).

There is a good number of shad in the river and if you can catch the river in shape and on a nice day the fishing can be good. We anchored up in one of my favorite spots yesterday around 500pm and with in a few minutes had a fish on. Now Ollie is 3 years old so he isn't casting yet and a shad would most likely pull him over the gunnel or my rod would go for a swim if he was left to do the whole thing on his own. I hooked the fish and then we fought it together. He has the "reel, reel, reel" thing down from digging through my reel bags sense he could crawl but holding the grip and reeling at the same time is a tough one. That said we managed to land about half a dozen shad in about a half hour. Then it was off to throw rocks.

Hooked UP!!!...Don't get pulled in


Ollies First Fish!!!!

I can't even began to remember after 15 years of guiding how many times I have held peoples first fish, first trout, first steelhead, first striper, first etc. or someone else's kids first fish with them. This was really a trip posing with Ollie and holding his first fish. Really feels like the beginning of a long journey we are going to have together I hope.

Bottom line there is shad in the river...Go fish.