30.April: I arrived at the Wall about noon time. The weather was overcast, no breeze, and no rain, yet. The water was down a couple of feet, ~5'-6' below the top course the Wall. The current was a little stiffer than yesterday. There were about a dozen regulars already working the water, and lots of reports of shad having been caught, and most released before I got there. I fell into casting practice, and had a few hits, but after a head shake, or two, or three, they were gone. That was pretty much the pattern of my day. About 2:pm, I had a solid hookset. After a tussle, where he ran deep, and often, I fought a decent buck to the net. Where he promptly threw the hook. C'est la guerre...

A little while later, it began to rain, lightly at first, but it picked up, with the wind. Within 20 minutes, it died down, and had stopped by the 30 min. mark. By 3:30 it started to rain lightly again, and I called it a day. Most of the other regulars lit up the shad, fairly consistently throughout the day. I didn't even try to keep count of the shad caught, with most having been released.

I picked up a 7' one piece Bass Pro Graphite series Medium action rod. Mated to my Penn 4400 SS, it is a nice set up, especially throwing a 1.5 oz drail. Anything over an ounce was a bit taxing on my 6' UglyStik.

Terminal tackle: 1.5 oz. drail, over 3'-4' 10# flouro leader, and I threw the rainbow of willow leaves at them today. Hammered silver, in white and pink w/black dot got me the hookset today.

Tomorrow is another day, and I will be heading back to the Wall after work. Even with the rain we've had, the shad are hitting in Cromwell. Tight lines!