Anglers Asked to Report American Shad in the Paulins Kill and Musconetcong Rivers Andrew and Steve Meserve mix fish roe and chicken eggs to create a unique dish (Travel Channel) Every year American shad migrate up the Delaware River to spawn. The numbers and timing of the "shad run" vary year to year depending on water temperature and conditions. Having accurate, up-to-date information on the run can greatly impact on angling success and enjoyment. Fortunately, there are resources anglers can use to get this information. INFORMATION RESOURCES
Why You Should Care About What Fish (Shad!) Swim With You In N.J. Rivers - nj.com, 3/24/15
5/17 Report
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/17/21
The river was down to 1.8' and is still going down slowly. We moved up to 200 yards for what should be our last night. The water temp was 62F. And the replacement pole that I've been working on for weeks was finally ready for a try. Turned out we really didn't need it but it was dipped into the water and it was decided that it could do with a little more trimming. Still a little heavy now that the steel point was attached. I'll have the summer to get that fixed up and maybe even make a spare just in case. It turned out to be a nice haul. We kept 5 bucks and 2 roe. We also had 2 smallmouth bass, 16 catfish, 2 quillback and 25 gizzard shad. Once I double check the numbers I'll send out the results for the year along with some thoughts on how the year stacked up. I think it will end up being a good year all in all. It was certainly a better year than last year. Look for the summary of the year in a few days. Until then...
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/14-15/21
For Saturday it was a bright day and the river was down to 2.48' (did I say it was going down slowly?). We kept the 150 yards on. The water temp was 59F but it was morning. We kept 1 row and one buck and returned 1 shad. We also had 17 gizzard shad. We'll go out tomorrow (Monday) evening. It will most likely be our last haul of the season. Let's wee if we can go out on a high note. I'll follow up with a summary of the year in a few days.
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/13/21
We'll be out again tomorrow. We'll try to get out Saturday before the rains come in and then it looks like Monday will be our last day.
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/12/21
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/11/21
For what the river forecast is worth it should be lower tomorrow. About 3.3' give or take. A cool night and sunny day is also forecast. We'll see what really goes on. We'll be back on the river tomorrow.
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/10/21
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/7/21
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/6/21
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/5/21
For tonight, the river was running at 2.12'. It looks like it will go over 5' by Thursday afternoon. The temp was 62F. We are still at 200 yards of net. We brought in 6 bucks, 3 roe and returned 3. We also had 26 gizzard shad, 1 carp and 4 quillback. It started out as a gray evening but by the time we were loading the net on the boat again there was a great sunset. If the river does make it up to 5'+ tomorrow we will not be going out (4.4' is our limit). It does look like it will drop pretty quickly so we might be back Friday.
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/4/21
The river was running at 1.91' and on the rise tonight. We took off net to bring us to 200 yards. There were a number of holes in the net that needed repairing so we got a late start (7:30). The water temp was 62F. We had 7 bucks and 3 roe (0 returned). As for the rest of the haul, that will need to wait but I will tell you that there were some big channel cats and another bunch of gizzard shad. It's looking like we may get rained out tomorrow but you never know. The river forecast has it getting to about 2.5' by the time we fish tomorrow if we do make it out. By Friday it's forecast to get to 3.7'. We will be back at it tomorrow night about 6:30-7pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 5/3/21
The weather is looking hit or miss for the next few days. If we get a break in the storms we'll be out there again tomorrow.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/30 & 5/1/21
I would say most good years we hover somewhere in the low to mid teens and really good years would be in the 20s to 30s. The best years are those in the 50s and there are just 4 of those years. and the other 3, besides 1963, are 1981, 1989 and 1992. All in all this is at least a good year. Even if we were to make another 10 hauls and catch 0 shad our catch per haul would still be 18.93. I still think there are shad to be caught. The river is up over a foot since we went out Thursday from 0.75' to 1.84' as of 8:45am today. That will work in our favor I think. We will be back at it tomorrow night about 6:30-7pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/29/21
Depending on just how bad the wind gets we will be back at it tomorrow night about 6:30-7pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/28/21
So when we got to the river it was at 0.79' with a temp of 64F. We still had the 250 yards on but because the river had dropped to below 1' we decided to haul in on the side. This would mean going a little further upstream to start out and landing upstream by about 100 yards. We also went a little further out to try and get to more fish. Well, we got more fish. However most of them were gizzard shad. In total we got 17 bucks and 3 roe for American shad. The rest of the catch was 3 catfish, 5 quillback, 1 herring and 107 gizzard shad. It looks like we have some rain coming in that will change things around again. We will be back at it tomorrow night about 6:30-7pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/27/21
We will be back at it tomorrow night about 6:30pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/26/21
Saturday was a looking good to start but the forecast was for a good amount of rain to come in. The river was at 1.32' and 56F. We were still fishing the 200 yards of net. Just like Friday evening there wasn't much in the nets. All we had were 2 shad that were returned (very small), 2 smallmouth bass and 4 catfish. With the rain that was forecast we were hoping to see the river come up just a bit so we wouldn't need to put net on for Monday. We never really got the rain so for Monday the river was at 1.13' and still 56F. another 50 yards of net was added. We still fished it around the point. As we pulled in the net there seemed to be a little activity going on. When all was said and done we kept 17 bucks and 8 roe. We returned 20 shad. We also had 4 catfish. It's looking like the river will continue to drop for another day or two before the next chance of rain comes our way Wednesday night. So far for the year we have caught a total of 500+ shad. The average catch per haul is just under 30. We will be back at it tomorrow night about 6-6:30pm.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/21/21
Because the water was a little lower we tried to get a little further out. All looked well until we got the haul in. All we had in the net was 4 catfish and 1 quillback. Where did all the shad go? One of the boats that was fishing under the free bridge in Lamberville came over to see how we did. They told us that they only had 2 shad for the whole day and the rest of the boats were not doing any better. In fact they didn't see anyone else pull in any fish while they were out there. I guess the shad are just taking it easy in an eddy somewhere waiting for the warmer weather that is coming in next week. The forecast is for temps to reach 72 on Tuesday and 80 on Wednesday. keeping my fingers crossed for that. We will go out Saturday morning about 11am just to see what is there. I'll keep you posted.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/22/21
The river was at 1.54' and was 54F. We still have that 200 yards of net on. It was a bit of a struggle to get the boat upstream with the wind coming from the west-north-west. We made what looked like a good haul. As we pulled it in the two people on the lead line commented on how light it felt. The crew started wondering if we were going to have a water haul (no fish in the net). When we got to the last 15 yards or so we finally started to see some movement in the net. When all was said and done we had a total of 84 shad. We kept 7 bucks and 12 roe. We returned 65 shad along with 1 smallmouth bass, 1 catfish and 1 gizzard shad. None of us expected that amount of fish. We can't wait to see what a little warm weather will bring us. We'll be out there again tomorrow night to see what we can get. There is some rain forecast for Sunday that hopefully will keep the river from getting down too low.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/21/21
We'll give it a go tomorrow, looking like it's going to be a cold day however.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/20/21
Tomorrow is iffy. We'll see what the weather looks like. Thursday and Friday look better right now. We'll see what we can do.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/19/21
There was a little drizzle but by the time we were heading home the sun was out. The water temp was up to 56F and the river was at 1.92'. We are still working the 200 yards of net. We got 20 buck, 21 roe and returned 41 shad. We also had 7 catfish, 3 gizzard shad and 1 quillback. There were some nice sized roe in the haul. Those numbers put us over 300 total shad (308) for the year so far in 9 hauls. And there was a very pretty sunset. We'll be at it again tomorrow. Weather is looking good and then it turns rainy (Wednesday) and cooler (Thursday).
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/16/21
As has been the case the last couple of hauls we noticed that the fish, for the most part were running small. I take that to mean that we are still in the early part of the run. We'll only know when it's all over. I can only guess for now. We'll be at it again on Monday. Same time, same stretch of river.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/16/21
We'll give it a go tomorrow about 11am. Not sure what to expect. At least the weather is looking better (I'm also using Weather Underground now).
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/15/21
I should take a moment here and explain about the pole that we broke last night. I've had a question about what it is used for. When the boat is heading into shore with anything more than 100 yards of net it can be a bit of a struggle. To help the two people rowing there is an 18-foot wooden pole with a steel point that is used to help the boat get into shore. Mostly what it does is keep the boat from drifting backward when the rowers have their oars out of the water. It gives a little extra help while the rowers are pulling on the oars. Without it it would be very difficult to get the net in. Now back to our story. For the haul we caught a total of 40 shad. We kept 0 bucks and 0 roe. We returned all 40 shad, 3 catfish and 7 gizzard shad. All the shad were returned because we had no one to buy any. For the year we are already over 200 shad caught (204 to be exact). And tonight was our 7th haul. With the way the weather has been going I have no idea what to expect from tomorrow. I'm guessing that we will be able to get a haul in. Just have to keep one eye on the skies (weather.gov is not doing too well lately).
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/14/21
For the haul we caught a total of 36 shad. We kept 5 bucks and 7 roe. We returned 24 shad and 4 gizzard shad. Tomorrow is not looking too good for fishing right now. There is a 90% chance of rain and up to a quarter of an inch forecast. But who knows, we may get lucky. Just have to keep one eye on the skies and another on weather.gov.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/13/21
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rain forecast for Wednesday holds off until we can get a haul in. Looks like the river will be up over 4' sometime Friday morning. If that is the case we may be off the river for the end of the week (the weather forecast for Thursday is not looking good right now, but things can change).
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/12/21
Today (Tuesday) is shaping up to be the best of the week with rain coming in Wednesday afternoon and sticking around into Friday. Welcome to April and its showers.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/9/21
It looks like there is rain coming in for a good part of the weekend. We won't go out tomorrow (Saturday) so we can take care of the tree mentioned above. That should take a good part of the afternoon and dull a couple of chainsaw chains. We'll go out again on Monday, weather and river permitting (looks like the river is only going to come up a bit with the weekend rain).
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/8/21
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/7/21
Take care and stay safe.
Lewis Fishery Report, 4/2/21
It's been a long winter. I hope this email finds you well and safe. We are finally getting ready to start the season. The nets are out and I hope to get the boat in the water in the next few days (Keep your fingers crossed the old Yamaha will start for me). Our bridge which we were going to replace in October 2019 (remember those days?) sustained some significant damage in the high water in December. It will be replaced this spring but not until after the season I expect. Because of this we will need to keep people off the island while we fish. We will bring fish across the creek to sell. It's a process we have used before. Please bear with us. I will send something out again over the weekend as the start date is firmed up. If you know anyone who would also like these updates just send the email address and contact info to me. Steve
Steve Meserve
2020 Reports |
|||||
|
|
|
|
||