4:15-815:pm at Rocky Hill. The weather was nice and mild, the breeze was warm and gentle. It had shifted 180º from yesterday and all of last week, coming down the river from Hartford, as opposed to cold and blustery, up from Middletown/Cromwell to the South. The current was stiff today, making it tricky to hold the bottom. As yesterday, only one person was on the dock when I arrived. He managed two before he left, about 5 pm, a nice fat roe, and a long, fairly thick buck.

I was joined by a friend, and his son. My buddy has been out with me a few times before, his son is an avid fisherman whom had never targeted shad. After getting him rigged up, and given a few pointers, he hooked up fairly quickly. Unfortunately, he lost it when it threw the hook. He repeated the maneuver once more a little while later. After a little more coaching, within an hour he hooked up, and was able to bring it to the net; his shad was cherry broken! Yepper, shad on light tackle is exciting stuff.

During all that, a little after 6, I managed my vitamin shad, a middlin' buck. Other than a short strike, and one little 6" dink schoolie, I had two break me off at depth. At least I got a little action... cha

A couple of other regulars joined us on the dock. The action was slower than yesterday, but everybody got at least one today. All in all it was a fine day to be outside.

Terminal tackle: 1.5 oz drail, over 3'-4' 8# flouro leader, and willows in hammered silver with orange w/black dot, chartreuse w/red dot, Bill's custom "stop light", pink w/ black stripe, pink w/black dot, and orange/green w/red dot.

Honestly, any bright, shiny willows attracted hits. Tight lines!

George Darrell ...

I support "PETA",
"People Eating Tasty Animals"