St. Johns River Shad Fishing Report

St. Johns River Shad Fishing Report Upcoming Events Mosquito Lagoon Show and Tell Seminar March 14 Mosquito Lagoon On-the-Water Show and Tell Seminar March 15 Sunday I went solo, in the Bang-O-Craft, scouting on the St. Johns River. All I found was a single shad, not very encouraging. But I saw Brian Eastman out there, and Mark Thomas, and Dave Lear, and Mark Benson. So the excursion was hardly a waste, quite the opposite. It was good to see all those guys. It had been years since I saw MT and Dave. Monday Mr. Joe Xu of Beijing was my fisherman for a St. Johns shad trip. After Sunday I had my doubts, but we hit them right away, using small crappie jigs and the 1/8th ounce Pixie. After getting more than a dozen we went catfishing. What I don't know about catfishing would fill lots of books, but Joe managed to get a six pound channel cat and a big bluegill, too. We also hooked and lost another catfish. Fishing was very good, and the day was gorgeous. Tuesday long-time friend Rodney Smith met me at the St. Johns boat ramp and we went off shad fishing in the Bang-O-Craft. Again, we hit them right away. After a dozen or so we tried catfishing for almost two hours with but a bullhead to show for our efforts. So we went back to shad fishing for our last half hour and got five or six more. I even got a double. So the shad are still a going concern. Friday I had an afternoon half day with Joel Sanders and his buddy Dave. It was about 55 degrees when they showed up. The flags were snapping and the lagoon looked like a washing machine. Dave was wearing shorts. Since he had just got here from Maine he said it felt like a heat wave. It did not feel like a heat wave to me- I was freezing. Since the weather was obvious when I left home I had brought the shad tackle and suggested that we shad fish instead of trying the lagoon. They opined that might be a good idea so we did. The fish were biting. It was not spectacular but it was very steady. We were using 1/16th ounce crapping jigs with tiny twisty tails in hot pink and chartreuse. Son Alex wants to go today. I guess we'll see about that... And that is this week's St. John's River shad fishing report from Spotted Tail. Life is great and I love my work!   Life is short- Go Fishing! John Kumiski www.spottedtail.com http://www.spottedtail.com/blog www.johnkumiski.com www.rentafishingbuddy.com https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jkumiski  All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2015. All rights are reserved.