Columbia River Spring Shad Fishing – Bonneville Dam
Introduction
Summer season is around the corner and that means that one of the most fun and active fishing is coming up! That of course is the annual Shad runs up the Columbia River that occurs around the month of June. Shad fishing is a fantastic fishery for anglers looking to get their tug fix in. It is also a great beginner’s activity if you want to introduce your friends and families to fishing. Shad are a relatively easy fish to fish for and they put up a fantastic fight that’s guaranteed to get anyone hook onto fishing!
I would recommend that you are able to cast your line in a general direction you want since the odds of shoulder-to-shoulder fishing is high, so you’ll want to have adequate control to make sure you get your lines out there and not cross over anyone else.
In this blog, I will detail what you need to know to get ready for a successful outing. This will focus on the shore/bank angler as you don’t need a boat or watercraft to have a great day fishing for this fish.
Rules & Regulations
Like with every outdoors activity in Washington State, we’ll want to check up the rules and regulations. You do need a license for them if you are over 15, and for fishing in the Columbia River, you’ll need a fresh water fishing license.
A fresh water license current will run you about ~$30.
As of current, there are no limits for Shad on the Columbia River up to the Bonneville Dam.
You’ll want to double check the information above just in case before you head out to make sure it’s still accurate if you’re reading this blog at a later date. The best way to get the up to date rules and regulations is through WDFW fishing app.
Location – Where to Go
There are many spots along the Columbia River that you can go to bank fish for Shad. One of the most popular locations is the Bonneville Dam, which I will focus on this in this Blog. This is a great location to go and gets pack during the peak of the season, which is around mid-June. You won’t miss the crowd there, so if you are planning on a weekend trip, be sure to get there early to get a parking spot.
In terms of spot at the dam, on the Washington side you can pretty much be anywhere along the Evergreen Highway stretch and be successful. During the high season, you’ll see folks packed almost shoulder to shoulder along the shoreline, so you won’t miss what spots are available.
Parking generally is pretty good, and I have not had any issues with finding spot along the Evergreen Highway on Dam Access Road.
There are also bathroom stalls along the parking spaces so you don’t have to worry about parking on one end or the other.
The drive to the dam is also a very scenic drive, so get ready to enjoy the journey if you like some great scenery of the great Columbia River.
Timing - When to Go
The runs start to pick up around late May and runs all the way until the end of June. One of the reasons why I like going to the Bonneville Dam is because there is a fish counter information that shows how much fish is going through the dam every day. Below is a plot of the 10 years average of daily shad counts, as well as the current year count to date.
You can find the website with the plots at the link below, or search Bonneville Dam Shad count.
Link: https://www.fpc.org/adults/R_dailyadultcountsgraph_resultsV6.php
This graph is a great indicator on when is a good time to go. The general rule is if the count is over 100k fish/day, you are going to have a good time out there. That almost means you’re certain to get constant actions no matter what time of day you go. You can see that the count starts to pick up past 100k at around the first week of June, all the way until the last week of June. That time stretch is going to be the prime time for hitting the shad run.
Time of day won’t matter when the count is hitting over 100k fish/day, so you can go early or late, but if you want to get a good parking spot, or be able to get a spot in between the crowds of people, I’d recommend getting there early. Since the geography of the area is very rocky as you can see in my YouTube video below, getting there early will allow you to switch spots to a “less” snaggy spots if you find yourself snagging up a lot. That’s a side note but be prepare to lose a lot of gear here. I’ve found that fishing in all tide conditions is good when the fish count is high. Might be easier to fish during tide change since you don’t have to deal with the current as much, but I’ve found that low current means higher change of snag also.
Weather-wise, of course nice sunny day is great, or nice overcast so you don’t get burn up by the sun. The only weather I would avoid is high wind since that causes the waves along shore to be quite rough and make casting very difficult, as well as significantly increases your changes of snagging.
Overall, as long as the counts is over 100k/day and you have the time to go, it’s definitely worth the drive to get a solid day of fishing in. A great fun day for everyone.
Gears & Equipment
With when and where to go locked down, next up is the gears preparation. For Shad fishing, you definitely don’t need anything crazy. I recommend any trout gears you have, and they’ll work fine. Longer rod length is desirable to get your lure out a bit further, but not necessary. My recommended set up is a ~9’ rod – light rating, with a size 3000 or smaller reel. You definitely don’t need anything heavy duty to reel these fish in, and lighter tackles with make the fight a lot more fun. Line wise, I recommend around ~10lb lines, which is more than enough to handle this fish. I like to go lighter at around 6lbs line to improve my casting distance (Lighter line = further casting distance). My set up of choice is an Okuma Celilo 8’6” light action rod with a Pflueger President size 2500 reel. I’ve linked the amazon links below if you’re interested.
Picture: Rod & Reel
Okuma Celilo Rod (8’6” UL): https://amzn.to/3x0zX1a
Pflueger President Reel (Size 2500): https://amzn.to/3xafrwy
Terminal tackles wise, shad is really simple. You’ll need swivels to connect your main line to your leader line, some weights at around 1oz to 2oz to get your presentation to the bottom, and that’s pretty much it.
Lures for Shad can be as simple or complicated as you like. I’ve seen folks use just a piece of silver aluminum on a small hook catch them. The most popular lures that folks use are the shad darts.
They come in a variety of size and colors as shown in the image. The favorite colors choice is usually the chartreuse body with green or red head, with a size ~4 gold hook. The weight will depend on the conditions, but the 1/4oz is usually the tried and true for me. They are selling for about ~$4 for a pack of 3, and you can get them at the gas station right by the dam if you ever run out or at a shop about 30mins out that’s on the way to the dam from the Washington side.
Chartreuse/green (1/4oz) – 50 packs: https://amzn.to/3GsLI4O
Chartreuse/red (1/16oz) – 50 packs: https://amzn.to/3wZOaNi
You can also find these at your local sporting goods stores. In the Puget Sound Seattle area, I recommend going to the Outdoors Emporium, they’ll get you going with everything you need. Buying them in bulk is the cheapest option. You’ll definitely want to have a good amount because you will be losing gears out there. Especially if you’re new to drift fishing, or the current is really strong, get ready to go through them until you figure out the drift.
For me personally, I’ve found that really any color choices works great when the runs are in. Hence, I go with the cheapest options, which tends to be the unpainted one. You can usually get the 100 packs for a fraction of the price of the painted ones.
Worse case, you can probably find a bunch of snagged lures within the rocks when the water is low. Unfortunately, the place is littered with lines and tackles from people snagging or just littering. I’ve found a bunch of near new lured like this so this is one avenue if you like to get free lure and also support the clean up effort of the dam.
You’ll want to tie up a bunch of these to your leader lines and pack them away on a roll (I use a cut portion of a pool noodle). For leader lines, I like my distance at 3’ ~ 4’, about a full arm length. I do this so if I snag and loose the entire set up, I’ll have this ready to tie on to the swivel and get out there again without having to tie up leaders out there.
That’s pretty much it, all the gears preparation you need to be successful in shad fishing. That’s another reason why its fun is the gears and tackles are simple and you don’t need any crazy gears to get these fish. One thing I would recommend is to make sure you order the shad darts sooner rather than later, because when the prime-time season start, it’ll get difficult to get your hands on them.
Check out my video last year on Shad fishing for more tips and tricks, as well as a brief tutorial on how to fish for these fish. Key takeaway is to keep your drift as long as you can and to remember to get your presentation down towards the bottom of the water column.
Good luck out there and I hope you guys have a fantastic days out on the water!