Simultaneous Shad

You ever notice when you might think of something randomly one day, then all of a sudden, perhaps the very same day, it comes up in conversation or on television, or the internet, or wherever, somewhere else?

That happened yesterday with shad.

Shad?

Yes, shad.

I was going on my Sunday morning walk around the neighborhood (no fishing rod this time) when I started to daydream about my somewhat annual shad fishing trips to central Florida with Captain Rich Santos. I always go the open weekend between the NFL Conference championship games and the Super Bowl, just because that's how my work schedule goes in February.

I didn't go last year, which while it was a bit of a bummer, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl immediately soothed any pain I experienced. But like I said, this morning I couldn't help daydreaming about the prospects for 2019 and getting hooked up with a "poor man's tarpon," not to mention the common bycatch of Sunshine bass...

Anyway, the excuse to show off some old grip & grins aside (I mean it's hard not to smile when catching those fish), as I was shuffling through my smartphone during my walk, desperately needing to catch up on some fishing podcasts from while I was doing the Alaska thing, it was hard not to have my eyes immediately go toward this one in my "new releases" queue:


Ooh, now that was more than a little creepy...

Sure, this is about summer shad fishing up in the Washington D.C. area on the Potomac River, rather than the late winter St. John's River shad run of Florida, but still... shad is shad... and it's not a fish that's often pontificated upon in fly fishing circles.

So anyway, if you're interested in shad, give the embedded DrakeCast a listen. It's really good... the host hooks up with Joel Johnson and they talk about the fish from all angles, bad pun notwithstanding.

Image: The Drake