Featured Photo: Streamer Eater on the Clinch

Featured Photo: Streamer Eater on the Clinch

Monday, January 05, 2015

Clear and Cold Brings Us Closer to a Shad Kill

Here on the Cumberland Plateau, the recent storm system has moved out leaving us experiencing clear skies and cold temperatures.  Hope for a shad kill is on the upswing with the cold snap dropping temperatures in area reservoirs.

Each year we experience at least a small scale shad kill but in the best years it can bring the largest trout in the river out to feed.  By Thursday, we are expecting lows down near zero so it won't take a whole lot of time at these temperatures to bring down water temperatures in the lakes.  If we continue to have cold weather, I could see the shad kill here as early as the first of February although in some years it holds off until early March.  Once it starts, no one knows how long it will last.


In between tying flies and doing some writing, I've been able to get out and take some pictures.  The picture above shows how bright the sun is this time of year under mostly clear skies.  That cold blue color reminds me that the coldest temperatures are yet to come.  Here's to hoping for a really cold next month or so.  Then you'll know where to find me: floating down the river tossing white streamers...

6 comments:

  1. Hmm... sounds like an interesting "hatch". Must be some big browns eating those.

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    1. Some of the biggest fish in the river will come out to play if that hatch comes off!

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  2. David
    Beautiful image, any strips eating those shad this time of the year? Glad to be back with you guys after a while of not blogging

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    1. Bill, it is really good to see you back! I hope things are going well for you and your family.

      As far as striper, I have not seen them on the Caney this time of year. Usually once it gets really cold they head back down to the Cumberland. Now, on the Tennessee River below Watts Bar and Chickamauga it is another story. Definitely some striped bass that are probably looking for shad on those tailwaters...

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  3. David, do you have a favorite "White Streamer" that you use? Maybe you covered this in a previous post, but, I must have missed it............................

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    1. Mel, that is a great question that I will probably address a lot more in depth soon. Here is one pattern that I wrote about some time ago that I designed specifically to match our shad "hatches" here on the tailwaters of the southeast. The PB&J

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