Fished my annual shad run on the Columbia, Oregon side, on Bradford Island, facing the Washington shore. Did this a number of times in the late 90s/early 2000s, and after relocated out of and then back into the area, this is the second year I've revisited the shad run.

Let me get the negative stuff out of the way, because I want to end on a positive note (and the fishing really was superlative). First, that fishery is experiencing

extreme

pressure on weekends - ten years ago I could fish the tank boundary on Robins Island without having to sleep in my truck all night at the entrance. Bradford Island at 9:00 am had fisherman stacked up from the prohibited fishing sign closest to the dam all the way to the point, every 10 feet. It was awful - I had to wait around and race down the hill when somebody finally left. Second, there is a distinct lack of consideration and standard fisherman's etiquette going on there - I had people stealing my spot when I was retying a snapped rig, people parking themselves so close I could reach out and touch them with my hand, people casting over my line and getting tangled up or not stopping and looking what everyone around them is doing, etc. Again, ten years ago fishermen were much more considerate towards others at Bonneville, and you never saw the opportunistic, crude, selfish, ignorant behavior like you do today. This profoundly disturbs me, as I would never treat anyone else that way, given how frustrated it makes me to be on the receiving end.

OK, negatives out of the way. The run was really good today, and when i wasn't untangling my line or spitting nails at ass-clowns who jumped in my spot, the fishing was excellent - I'd have given it a 5 otherwise. As usual, there are probably 2-3 shakeoffs for every fish landed. My buddy and I took home 25 nice fish, but probably had 100 on. The difference between no shad and beaucoup shad seems small, and I always have to spend some time figuring out what presentation, colors, etc I need to do in the particular stretch of water I'm able to get a spot in. Today, it wasn't the typical straightforward left to right current I usually fish, and it kind of swirled around. Made it slightly more difficult to make an effective presentation, and we didn't start killing them until late afternoon once we figured out the "tricks". Pink seemed to be a slightly more effective color mid-day, with chartreuse towards late afternoon. As always, the fish came in waves, and you could see the fisherman downstream start to catch fish, and see the wave of fish being caught move upstream towards yourself.

My catch was inhibited by a rather catastrophic failure of a cheapie spinning reel I installed on a very good, fast action 8-17 lb test walleye rod, and by about 1:00 pm I had to fall back on a rod I use for bluegills and perch in the I82 ponds (not good - 6 lb test - I was lucky I even threw it into the pickup). This meant I couldn't stay close to the bottom like you have to, and I lost a number of complete rigs by snagging the rocks on the bottom. That said, catching shad on an ultralight with 6 lb test and overkill 3/4 oz weight was really quite exciting, and probably impressive to those around me ("wow, I didn't know you could bend a St. Croix rod into a 720° angle").

Shad are just plain fun - really fun. They go berserk when hooked, they are a challenge to bring to shore due to soft mouths and their circus side show antics when hooked, and the fight is exhilarating. They hit like a ton of bricks, and the fight has all the tricks (jumping, head shaking, runs, using their profile against the line pull). I usually smoke them, but this year I want to experiment with baking them.

All in all a fabulous day fishing, only tainted by the actions of inconsiderate fellow fishermen.....

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