I went out this afternoon from 4-6:30 pm at Bissell. A handful of regulars were there, half fishing and half waiting for a shad to make an appearance. Nobody had any success.

About 5:pm I had a solid hook up, it felt like a smallish shad but fought well in the CT River current. It actually hit fairly close to shore, as I had fumbled, and made a lousy short cast. Once it started getting to shallow water, it put its head down and made a couple of nice runs. Alas, as I turned its head for the last time, it rolled and turned away in shallow water giving me a nice look at it, and the weight came sailing past my head. It must have wound the leader around a chunk of rock when it turned, what was left of the leader was split and frayed, and about 18" shorter... It was the only shad that bit while I was there. When I left at 6:30, nobody had so much as a bump. They're still very scattered.

Water surface temp was 51* but I'm sure it is a few degrees colder at depth. The water at Bissell had fallen about 8" from yesterday, the current was flowing good, and the water was clear. Wind came straight down the river from Windsor, it was chilly on the bank, while it was nice and warm in the parking lot by contrast.

Terminal tackle: 3/4 oz drail over 5' flouro leader; I tried bright willows: hammered silver w/orange and black dot, hammered silver w/chartreuse and black dot, hammered silver w/blue/white, had the hook set on plain silver w/yellow, orange, and an "eye" spot.