2015 RVA Shad Shootout
Shad fishing for us, along with many
others, has been rather frustrating and difficult to pattern this season. Fishing
for them in general hasn’t been all that great, which left us unsure of what
to expect for this year’s Shad Shootout. Nonetheless, we were excited to get
another opportunity to participate in a great event benefitting Heroes on the
Water. Not to mention getting to spend a little time with our kayak fishing brethren
from near and far that we simply don’t get to see often enough.
I know some may be curious of what
we did on tournament day that led to us catching the fish we needed to catch. Therefore,
the following will be a play by play from my (Josh) point of view of the day’s
events.
5:45 a.m.
Knowing how insane and impossible
the Anncarrows ramp can be on a Saturday morning, Grant and I made it a point
to be at the launch earlier than some might think necessary. With the
particular tide cycle we had, and the rest of the fleet starting upriver, we
decided it would be wise to start our day downriver.
We got in position and awaited the
6:45 “lines in” call. Meanwhile, through the fog rising off the water we were
graced with one of the coolest spectacles any angler could hope to see, the
tiny topwater pops of herring getting obliterated by the abrupt, destructive blasts
of Striper inhaling fish like candy!
IT. WAS. EPIC.
6:45 a.m.
The casting began and fishing was
tough. Slowly but surely we started picking up Hickories here and there. Grant began
sticking them left and right while I was retying a broken leader. I got a new
gold spoon tied on and quickly evened the odds by catching a few on back to
back casts.
8:00 a.m.
I left Grant with the Shad and began
searching for a catfish. He had me by a half inch at this point but I wasn’t worried….
I’d catch a good cat and it wouldn’t matter, or so I thought. After getting
pestered by tiny cats while drifting I decided to hit a few spots that have
produced good Flathead for me in the past. As I got anchored up Grant began
drifting over the same water I just covered. Sure enough after what seemed to
be two dozen passes over the exact same stretch of water, I watched him hook up
with a good Blue Catfish. It was the Blue that would eventually help him win
the tournament.
12:00 p.m.
By this time the clouds had moved
out, making the task of catching a respectable cat almost impossible. I decided
to head up river in search of Striper and Perch, Grant followed close behind.
We began to get word of a big cat that had been caught earlier in the day, and
if the rumor was true such a fish would threaten Grant’s chances for a repeat
Shootout victory.
1:00 p.m.
We got into position and began
casting again; it wasn’t long before I started picking off Striper. I ended up
catching around a half dozen, the biggest at 20 ½ inches rewarded me with 1st
place in the Striper Division. We both tried for Perch in the areas we caught
them the day prior but it seemed they had simply moved farther up river with
the cycle of the tide.
Knowing it would be a very tight
race for 1st place with two nice Blue Cats being caught, we decided that
it was very important for Grant to land an American Shad. Generally Americans
are larger than Hickories in weight and in length, so landing even an average
American could add precious inches to his overall total. The only problem… the
Shad were not complying with the plan. As it would seem, the Shad we were after
were not in the area, however Grant mentioned that he kept bumping what he
thought were herring. This sparked the memory of a situation I had from two
years ago where the American Shad would lightly strike the bait I was throwing
and if you weren’t keyed in on such a minute strike you simply would not hook
them. I relayed this knowledge to him and he executed within minutes, landing a
solid American Shad to add the few inches that proved to be just what he needed
to pull out the win. That’s a great example of why we do pretty decent in these
tournaments. We combine our knowledge and experiences to form a plan of attack…
and in the end we’re usually both competing for the win.
We
fished for a few more hours and left the river at around 4 just to be sure we
beat traffic.
The
weigh in and raffles were fun as always. We spent some fun times with a great
group of guys all the while raising money for an awesome cause. Grant brought
home the 1st place trophy for the second year in a row with a total
of 72 inches, beating out 2nd place by a half inch, proving that
last American Shad was as important as we thought it’d be. I won the Striper
Division and brought home about $155 bucks along with some sweet winnings in
the raffle which included a badass Bubba Blade brand fillet knife! We love this
tournament because of its variety of species along with its multiple fish limit
and I think it could go without saying but we can’t wait for next year! It was
a good way to end the Shad season and a strong momentum push for the Yakattack tournament
in May. Until then, it’s back to chasing that paper. Trophy fish beware.
Fish Hard or Stay Home,
Josh D.
