Shad Fishing On The
Columbia River & The Willamette River
Shad are a brightly
colored fish with silver bodies, green backs and
large scales and a deeply forked tail. The bucks
run from one to two pounds in size while Females
tend to run much larger and often weigh three to
six pounds.
In 1978 over a million
shad came into the Columbia River. Annual runs
continued to increase and in the last few years
there have been annual Shad runs that numbered
over four million fish passing over Bonneville
Dam.
They begin entering
the Columbia in good numbers in mid to late May
and by the middle of June we witness numbers in
excess of 100,000 fish per day that go over the
Bonneville Dam. In July the annual Columbia
River Shad runs begin dropping in numbers. Some
Shad are still caught in good numbers further
upriver below John Day Dam. The Willamette River
near Portland, Oregon also boasts huge numbers
of Shad. Every year this is a very popular
fishery for Shad because of the amount of fish
that pass through and the location that's so
close to everything. |
