Fishing With Shads

A very simple rig. You dont need a boom to catch cod on shads

Paul Kilpatrick With A Prime Cod On A 4" Blue Storm Shad

Tackle For Shad Fishing.

Using Shads to catch fish involves using relatively light gear. A 20 pound class boat rod is the norm coupled with a 7000 size multiplier filled with braid of between 25 and 50 pounds. It is useful but not  essential to use a 50 pounds mono shock leader to cushion the blows of the strong lunges of a hooked cod or pollock, the shock leader should be approximately twice the length of the rod you are using. Some anglers prefer to use a fixed spool reel for shad fishing claiming it gives them more feel, on a personal note I prefer the multiplier but either will do the job just fine. A weight of between 6 to 10 ounces is used to take the shad down to the sea bed.

Paul Kilpatrick With A Prime Cod On A 4" Blue Storm Shad

Storm Or Calcutta Shads – Which Shads To Use ??

With regards to the shad itself it is usually best to carry several different types and colours. The favoured colours for cod and Pollock fishing are often blue, black and pearl, green, yellow, and orange. The red hot colour for cod is usually dark blue. The favoured makes of shads are the Calcutta shad and those made by Storm. The 4 Inch shad seems to be favoured by the boat anglers at Whitby.

How To Set Up A Shad Rig.

Whitby charter skipper and local boat fishing expert Paul Kilpatrick says that the simpler methods for setting up a shad rig are by far the most successful. There is no need to use a boom style set up, and in Paul’s experience that only causes more tangles. Paul Says “you simply tie a snap swivel to your main line and attach your weight into the snap. Then you need to tie a 30 pound snood of around five foot in length from the eye of your shad to a second snap swivel. The second snap is also fastened into the eye of the lead weight. When your ready you simply drop the lot down to the sea bed. It really is that simple – and tangle free.

A very simple rig. You dont need a boom to catch cod on shads

How To Fish With Shads.

Fishing with shads really is simple. You let the shad fall to the sea bed and the moment it hits the bottom you click the reel into gear and start winding in slowly. You usually wind up around 20 turns of the handle then let the shad fall back to the bottom again by clicking the reel back out of gear. If you feel a bite you must resist the urge to strike and instead keep retrieving at a steady pace until the fish is hooked – Its that simple.

Catching Cod On Shads aboard Paul Kilpatrick’s Sea Otter 2