See Mark's 2006 "Big D" article (pdf, 165kb) which gives an overview of the river and its fisheries.

4/30 Report
4/27 Report
4/24 Report
4/19 Report
4/15 Report
4/11 Report
4/10 Report
3/24 Report
3/17 Report

FISHING REPORT - 4/30/08 (from Gary Conner)

NOTHING TO REPORT ON SHAD SO FAR THIS WEEK. HAVEN’T EVEN HEARD ANYTHING FROM THE TOURNEY PEOPLE.

THE NET HASN’T HAD ANY REAL ACTION SINCE SATURDAY MORNING. STEVE AND CREW DID A GREAT JOB DURING THE SHAD FEST IN LAMBERTVILLE.

PLAN TO GET MORE HERRING AND STRIPERS THIS WEEKEND.

WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW WE DO.

KEEP REPORTING TO CONNERFISH@AOL.COM

TIGHT LINES

CONNER

FISHING REPORT - 4/27/08 (from Gary Conner)

Steve Meserve, Lewis Fishery, did a demonstration pull today (Shad Fest) 2 American shad, lots of gizzard shad, smallmouth, carp and cats.

Joined Nasir and Nasir from Jordan by way of Ohio. There was only 1 other boat at Lambertville and in 4 hours only 1 shad was boated.

Nish fished Lambertville Saturday, nothing.

Trenton, the herring are in, more than a hundred boats were bailing them Friday and Saturday. Bud boated 70 in 20-30 minutes, I released mine so he could have more fun...

We only had a half hour to fish for stripers and Bud landed a 7# striper on a live line and 2, 4-5 pound cats before we had to pull the plug.

Phil, reports from Glen Ridge, fly fishing below Flatbrook released 2 nice buck. (White with black head chenille weighted.)

Pic, shad tourney, advised parking a mess on the PA side. Better facilities on the Philipsburg side. I have used their new ramp, it is very nice.

Hope to get my grand kids out for herring and stripers this week.

Keep reporting to connerfish@aol.com.

Tight lines.

Conner

FISHING REPORT - 4/24/08 (from Gary Conner)

WATER TEMP IS GREAT, CLARIY ALMOST UNBELIEVEABLE, WEATHER IS FANTASTIC.

ONLY ONE THING MISSING, THAT BIG SURGE OF SHAD.

STEVE MESERVE, LEWIS FISHERY, REPORTS A FEW SHAD IN THE NET BUT NO BIG #. LOTS OF OTHER FISH INCLUDING GOOD # OF SMALLMOUTH,

KEVIN FISHED YARDLEY, NO HITS, NO TAKES, NO KNOCK DOWNS ON 2 BOATS.

HIGH HOOK GOES TO NISH, 24 SHAD, 8 LOST, (3 DOUBLES -1 TRIPLE) ON THE MORNIG BITE. THAT IS THE FIRST GOOD MORNING BITE REPORT THIS SEASON.

JIM FISHED TRENTON LAST EVENING, LIMITED OUT ON HERRING IN NO TIME, PARTNER NEIL LANDED 8# STRIPER, NO # ON JIM'S STRIPER.

ALL THE BOATS WERE DOING GREAT ON HERRING 2-3 PER DROP.

THIS IS THE TIME TO TAKE THE KIDS OUT FOR A COUPLE HOURS.

NOTE NESHAMINY RAMP IS OPEN AFTER 3 PM TODAY AND TOMORROW CALL AHEAD TO MAKE SURE 215-826-1662. DREDGING SHOULD BE COMPLETE FRIDAY AT 3PM FOR THE SEASON.

SHAD TOURNY PARKING, LARRY HOLMES DRIVE WILL BE OPEN FROM AROUND THE BANK OF AMERICA TO NORTHAMPTON ST. ENTER FROM NORTHAMPTON ST.

KEEP REPORTING TO CONNERFISH@AOL.COM

SEE YOU ON THE WATER

TIGHT LINES

CONNER

FISHING REPORT - 4/19/08 (from Gary Conner)

All conditions are go. The weather is great, the water is great. Where oh where are the shad?

Steve Meserve, Lewis Fishery hasn’t had any shad in the nets in the last 4-5 days.

Jimbo, fished Trenton (no herring) and the power plant, good shad from boat and shore.

Wish I had more news but that’s all folks.

Tight lines.

Conner

FISHING REPORT - 4/15/08 (from Gary Conner)

This is the week to hit the river.

Lewis Fishery started catching shad Saturday, 6 in the net. Water temp 50 degrees.

Easton, unnamed angler fished with Capt. Dave landing 44, lost 10.

Lambertville, Big D has been doing great on the evening bite, landing 13, 14, and 15 a night on 2½ hour trips.

Port Jervis, Rich reports signs of blue quill, quill gordens and a few Hendricksons are indications of an early season. No sign of shad.

The run is at Lambertville now, go fishing.

DON’T FORGET, THE BIG SHAD MEETING IS WEDNESDAY APRIL 16, 7:00 PM AT THE SE WY CO FIRE CO. ON RT.378 IN LOWER BETHLEHEM.

See you on the river.

Tight lines.

Conner

FISHING REPORT - 4/11/08 (from Gary Conner)

The Lewis Fishery has put the net out 4 times this week under very nice conditions without netting a shad.

Water temp has been rising nicely to 52 degrees (this is just about perfect)

Clarity, flow and depth are also great. Now all we need are shad.

Dave reports from the Trenton power plant fishing from his boat. He and his son landed 3 shad and lost 3, they also landed 4 stripers. Shore fishermen landed 23 shad and one 2.5 lb. largemouth.

Shadilac fished Yardley, caught 6 shad, 3 each.

Don’t forget April 16 Wednesday evening 7:00 PM at the SE WY CO fire house on RT. 378 in S Bethlehem. Bring a friend and bring the kids. All kids win a prize. See you there.

Keep reporting to connerfish@aol.com.

Tight lines.

Conner

Delaware River Report, 4/10/08
With the warmer weather today, Delaware River American shad fishing getting ready to break wide open.

Yesterday, one boat angler fished at Yardley, PA, from 6:30am to 3pm. Caught 6 A. shad in total from 11:45am to about 2:30pm. Three nice roes and the rest were bucks. All caught on spoons flatlining with splitshot #3, four on the line.

Water is still running high, but clear. Some debris (leaves) but not too bad. Water temp. was 45.3° F. in the morning. Rose to 47.5° F. by 2:30pm. Clarity was great, about 2 ft. from the surface. Most shad were caught on orange/black and orange/white #2 spoons. Roes were feisty and heavy. All fish were released to be 2008 spawners.

Other anglers, further upriver, report marking many fish moving through on their depth finders. The water there is colder, so the shad are not hitting hard (water temp. has to be close to 50° F. to induce a strike). Some of these anglers pull up their lines to find a shad scale on the hook, an indication of the large number of shad migrating through. Often, in this colder water, anglers will hook a shad on the outside of its mouth, as it feebly strikes at the spoon.

Delaware River Report, 3/24/08
2007 Delaware River Hydroacoustic American Shad Adult Population Estimate is 181,600 (this is the 9th highest since the study was first conducted in 1992).

The hydroacoustic study will not be conducted in 2008. Instead, Steve Meserve of the Lewis Fishery, Lambertville, will conduct extra haul seines, beginning the week of March 24 to hopefully determine the strength of the 2008 run.

2007 Delaware River juvenile A. shad index = 408/seine haul (total of 19,605 juv. A. shad collected). This was the second highest ever, in 29 years. The 29 year average = 222/seine haul.

Juvenile A. shad seining will not be conducted in the upper river in 2008. Due to the strong correlation with the number of juv. A. shad collected by the Bureau of Marine Fisheries during their young of the year striped bass seining, the upper river juvenile A. shad sampling was deemed unnecessary by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Captain George Kumor, Delaware Bay gill netter, is now catching white perch, bunker & a few moon herring (alewives). He expects A. shad in his nets in 11 days. Capt. George says everyone down there in the NJ southland wants their shad & roe, for Easter! Well they will just have to wait, or eat a moon herring instead. This is the earliest Easter in 95 years.

Capt. George also says: Now = North winds, then south winds, north winds, then south winds..................need the steady south winds to keep them moving up the bay.

Delaware River Report, 3/17/08 Report
Reported first A. shad caught in the warm water effluent at the Trenton Power Plant ("pickin' at the power plant"). Next pickin' will be at Portland Power Plant, per usual.