Like every year, the month of May and the first heat signal the arrival of shad on the coasts and their return to the rivers. This year, I decided to fish them with a baitfiness casting rod, in order to take even more pleasure during the fights.
The equipment used to fish for shad in baitfiness
For shad fishing in casting, I decided to use my combo that I use for trout fishing in lakes. It's a home made rod with a NFC 702FW blank with all the parts made by hand, from the butt to the wooden reel seat.
I even took the opportunity to make matching reel knobs. This rod measures 2.13 m for a power of 2-7 g, is mounted with a torzite ring ramp to gain in weight and glide, with a spiral casting for all the advantages that this brings (reduction of the number of rings, stability in combat, absence of contact between the braid and the blank).
As for the reel, it is a Daiwa Alphas Air TW, reel specific to baitfiness fishing and casting with small weights. The use of a high quality reel for light fishing in casting is essential to avoid the wigs and the disappointments. This reel is spooled in 8-strand Siglon braid in PE0.4 and for shad, I use a fluorocarbon leader of the same brand in 8lbs of resistance. This allows me to restrain the fish if necessary, while keeping a certain discretion.
Shad being generally very moody, I use staples in order to be able to change lures very quickly if a school becomes difficult and fussy. Small and very resistant staples like the BKK Duo lock in size 00 do the job perfectly.
Which lures to use for shad fishing with baitfiness casting?
As far as lures are concerned, I mainly use two types of lures to fish for shad: soft lures and metal jigs.
These two lures are very complementary, both in their presentation and in their swimming action. Indeed, the soft lures allow to fish slowly, in linear or with small strokes of scions to trigger the aggressiveness of the fish.
I mainly use the Touptishad of Delalande, which offers the advantage of being mounted ready to fish, in 4 cm, it remains a small prey easy to seize for the shad. It has a very sharp fine iron hook, which is essential to optimally penetrate the cartilaginous mouth of shad.
As for the metallic jigs, they allow on the one hand to gain in distance of casting, and on the other hand to fish more hollow, which is sometimes essential when the shad settle under the current. The luminous flashes emitted by the shiny jigs during the animations do not generally leave the shad indifferent.
As far as colors are concerned, pink remains my favorite, even if objectively, all colors work on shad. Just don't hesitate to change regularly as soon as the bites become scarce. It is frequent that the simple fact of changing color allows to add some fish to the counter.
Additional combat control
During my first sessions stalking shad with baitfiness casting, I was able to confirm the feeling I had when fishing for trout in lakes. Baitfiness casting allows a certain strength and control of the fight, different from spinning.
Indeed, holding the rod firmly with the reel up provides a real leverage arm that allows, if needed, to easily restrain a shad to avoid it to go into branches or rub a rock. This control is also facilitated by the proximity of the reel to the thumb, which allows you to manage the fight without having to touch the drag.
This one-handed management also allows an easier landing when fishing alone, avoiding having to release the net to get back on the reel if the shad decides to rush again.
In addition to this better control, shad fishing with baitfiness casting offers incomparable sensations, from the touch to the landing net, everything is multiplied tenfold and it is a real pleasure to fight these freshwater tarpon on light equipment!
