Yesterday, 20.April: After work, I headed to the Wall in Cromwell, and arrived ~4:30 pm to over a dozen people fishing its length. The river was flowing strong, even against a stiff breeze running up from Middletown. The water was fairly clear, temp. was 51º F, and there was some flotsam in the current. I noticed a few shad on the bank, and one being netted as I set up. Promising.

On my first cast, as I started the retrieve, I got a hit. After four quick head shakes, it was *gone*. No matter, I saw others fighting and landing shad. Most looked like bucks, but there were a few fat girls in the mix. I had a couple more short strikes, with a couple of head shakes, but no solid hook sets until after 5:pm, when I got hit hard. I was happy I brought my med-heavy tackle for the fight it gave in the current. Eventually it came in to the wall, and we saw a nice fat, football of a shad. Just as the net was scooping under, it dropped the leaf, flipped and slipped into the deep. So. D*mned. Close. Radio would have called it a catch. C'est la guerre. I left about 6:30 pm after another bump and run, or two, since nobody was catching over the last half hour. I didn't keep count, but I saw a lot of shad caught, and many released. Things are looking up in Cromwell. Rumor has it, it is still slow in Rocky Hill and Windsor.

If it doesn't rain when I get out of work today, I will head down to the Wall again. Tight lines!

Tackle: 6' one-piece Ugly Stik Elite mated to a Penn 4400SS spooled with 15# Power Pro. Terminal tackle: 1.5 oz drail over 4' flouro leader. Leaves: hammered silver in green w/black dot, orange w/red dot, and light blue/dark blue w/white dot. The last leaf, hammered silver w/two-tone blue w/white dot got all the attention.

And finally, a tip of the CTF hat to Cat Daddy, who introduced himself while we were taking casting practice after things settled down and the bite stopped. :wavey:

George Darrell ...

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