My buddy, Vinny Caruso, and I drove over to the St. Johns River near Geneva to fly fish for shad. The St. Johns River is the southernmost spot in the United States in which there's a shad run. We get American and hickory shad. The run begins in December and lasts through February.
We launched our kayaks at Mullet Lake State Park, a spot I've had decent success at over the years. The water was up and so was the wind. We caught bluegill, speckled perch (crappie) and redbreast sunfish, but no shad.
We loaded the kayaks on the trailer and drove 10 miles to C.S. Lee Park. We paddled upriver about a half mile and did pretty good. What was impressive was the size of the shad. All exceeded 20 inches. We also caught bluegill. Vinny hooked but lost a hefty gar.
The water is very high this year and flowing at a good rate. We had to anchor rather than drift. Most of the fish hit at the bottom of the swing. Shad are fun and fight very hard for their size.
We used 4- and 5-weight rods, sinktip or sinking lines and small shad flies.
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