29.April: Today I ran down to Cromwell to look over the Wall, arriving about 10:am. Dylan, surprise, surprise, was already working the Wall, and had a bleeder shad on the bank. He said he had C&R another one before I arrived. There were a few other people there, but had not begun fishing, yet. The water level was ~3' below the top of the wall, and flowing pretty well. It was raining lightly to moderately, and there was a lot of flotsam on and in the water, forcing us to choose carefully when, and where to cast. I C&R a middling buck by 10:30 am. After that I had a few hits and head shakes, but no firm hooksets. At noon I had to step out to get some groceries for supper. By that time, another half dozen folx had their arms in a cast with Dylan and I. A few more shad were C&R, and a couple of bleeders were kept for tables.

By 2:30 pm I was able to return for an hour before having to head home to cook for company. On returning, there were 10 people stacked up on the Wall near the North corner (left side facing the water). I made it 11. And a few striper guys headed to the southern corner (right side) of the Wall to chunk bait, or throw lures; what they threw I didn't see, I was too busy watching shad get landed (most were released). About 3:pm I had a solid hookset. He put his head down, and ran deep, using the current to gain any advantage he could get. It took me a few minutes to get him in close to the Wall because he wanted to stay deep, and ran down river to keep the advantage of the current. It took another minute or so to get him to the net. At first glance it looked like a roe, long and fat, but a little milt betrayed him. My guesstimate is 2.5#, maybe a little more. He was bleeding, so he was donated to someone who wanted to smoke shad. Other than a couple of bumps, I didn't set another hook before I had to head out. Pretty much every shadaholic caught one in that hour, and a couple of them hooked 2 or more. Most were bucks, but they were all middling to decent, with good color.

Terminal tackle: 1 oz. drail, over 3.5' of 10# flouro, and hammered silver willows in pink w/black stripe and dot, white glitter and chartreuse w/2 black dots, and "candy corn" (yellow/orange). The first 2 leaves each garnered me one shad, the last one attracted a couple of bumps. If I haven't mentioned it in this thread, I really love the 15# braid (Power Pro) I use for my main line. It has great abrasion resistance, and I can feel every bump from fish, the bottom, and today everything drifting submerged in the current that hit the line. Every. Thing. And, with no stretch, unlike mono, a hookset is a flick of the wrist away.

I'll be heading back to Cromwell tomorrow. The shad are here, and the numbers should improve over the coming week or so. Git ya some, tight lines!