Twaite shad

[S-Kippy]

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Paul Williams 11 wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote><blockquote class=quoteheader>S-Kippy wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>

No I dont. I am older and much wiser now but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

A salmon on a fly by design remains my ultimate goal.I've had a few but never on a fly. </blockquote>


The salmon are in the river for exactly the same reason as the Shad.....my point is how can you make the statement about shad and still fish for salmon?</blockquote>

Paul

Firstly by no stretch of anybodies imagination [including mine] could I be called a salmon angler.

The shad came as a complete surprise to us and only subsequently did I realise that there were decent runs.I confess to knowing very little about shad but one site I looked up stated that Builth Wells is one of the shad's main spawning grounds.Builth was where we were fishing.

Had I known it was a spawning area at the time I wouldn't have fished specifically for the shad because that,to me,doesn't seem right any more than it would be to fish for salmon on the redds which I wouldn't do either....so I dont see any contradiction in my statement and I must say I thought you were commenting on the futility of my attempt to catch a Wye salmon.

That said and with the benefit of several years hindsight I now feel a tad sheepish about specifically targetting the shad at Builth and wouldn't do it again,legal or not....but to be perfectly honest at the time it was such a novel opportunity to catch a fish I'd never seen before let alone caught I couldn't not have a go.

I've caught a shad and that will suffice.We toyed with going back but never did,once was enough.To this day I've no idea if they were twaite or allis...I suspect twaite.

Skippy.

 

[preston96]

No problem Skippy.....i thought you were a salmon angler with biggotted ideas, trust me i have met a few on the Wye.

You obviously are not so i apologise for presuming.

 

[S-Kippy]

No worries mate.I know the sort & have met a few in me time too.

The shad were good sport on light gear but damn funny things...not a bit like the cigarette card !

 

[preston96]

Yep, they are wonderful sport on a fly or very light spinner rod.....i caught my first on the Lugg, we were eeling and i saw silver flashes in the water, this is over 35yrs ago and at the time i didn't know what they were.

My older mentors enlightened meand i wrapped the silver paper from a fag packet around a bare hook and caught them..............if i know they are running i can't resist a dabble even now.

Some of those old cigarette card pictures were a bit strange /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

 

[S-Kippy]

Much the same as us.We had no idea they were even there until one hit my silver stoat and then we realised what the funny little knocks were.We scaled down and had a fantastic day.

There was a guy taking photos for the Builth Wells visitors guide directly opposite me.He asked me to catch one and hold it up so he could get me,the fish and the river with the cathedral in the background.No idea if it made the cut but I'd like to think it did.

Curiously my mate had some cracking grayling in amongst the shad...half a dozen good fish up to 2lb but I never had one.Really hacked me off at the time.

Needless to say I dont think we were within 30 miles of a salmon.

 

[preston96]

The salmon on the Wye were frightening sometimes 35yrs ago..........half asleep from watching the tip of an eel rod when all of a sudden it was like a cow had fallen in!!....some of them were huge!

Enough reminisceing lol.....i need to know whether to dig out those tiny fly spoons for my trips to my caravan over the next month or 2 lol.

So

 

[DZ]

Paul

I spoke to an enforcement officer re: fishing for shad- purely on the back of this thread.

The licence thing was a bit of a stir- but essentially they are not game fish or coarse fish or salmonid, they're herring family so not covered by either of the EA rod licences.

 

[Trev 2]

The confusion about fishing for Shad seems to go beyond us mere mortals on FM, I was watching an episode of "On the Fly"with John Bailey,onHorse and Country TV.

He was fishing the Wye, along with Mark Lloyd (at the time of filming head honcho for ACA), and they were targetting the shad (both types).

If the experts don'tknow they are a protected fish, how are we supposed to know??

Trev

 

[DZ]

There ought be no confusuion-

Go fishing for shad!

 

[preston96]

Cheers DZ..........don't think i will risk the no licence bit tho lol.

On a serious note, it is my opinion that the beurocrats "experts" have in their great wisdom!! turned two species into one.

EG they have mistaken the term Allis twaite shad to be a species of fish with a long name!! rather than two species!

 

[preston96]

Ok.....now the real life kicks in........the wye was chocolate today, IF the Shad were there they couldn't see my lure.

Nope....anglers make Zilch difference to them!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dave Burr]

I spent a lot of time on the phone to the various organisations last year regarding the shad. Having written about them and introduced plenty of anglers to the delights of shadding I felt I ought to get to the bottom of it all.

First point - The 'shad awareness day' was held in a small room in Hay on Wye. It was poorly advertised and attended even the press were not there. I and many other interested parties, only heard about it after the event.

I studied the relevant section of the Wildlife and Countrys9de act and found that it does not afford Twaite Shad the protection that was being reported. I spoke to the EA Bailiff named in the press release but he was unhelpful and threatened to 'do' anybody he caught despite not seeming to know the legal situation. It would seem that they were pleased to have this piece of legislation as it covered a loop hole that they had been unable to fill when people go salmon fishing without a licence but when challenged they claim to be shad fishing which are not named on the rod licence.

The EA fishery department were vague and unaware.

The Countryside Council of Wales (or something like that) had the answers. Apparently there is an overriding law regarding SSSI's that if you recklessly endanger anything that goes to make up the SSSI then you are guilty of an offence.

Now this is a belt and braces piece of legislation aimed at large scale pollution where a specific offence cannot be proved. The spirit of the law was never intended to stop anybody catching a few shad. Those that I spoke to admitted that it was unlikely that they would ever get a conviction with it.

In my opinion, if there is a problem (usually around Monmouth 40 miles below Hay where the low-key launch happened) then why not get a by-law passed or put a few suspects in front of the court, this would stop the poachers.

Also, if you want to protect a fish you stand a far better chance of getting support from anglers if they at least know of the species, and most anglers haven't a clue what a shad looks like. Let them catch a few and they will respect them and, if in the future they need extra protection, they will be willing to support them and give backing to protection orders. This could be relevant should the Severn Barrage go ahead as it will adversely effect the shad run.

 

[GrahamM]

Stuart Clough sorts out the legal tangle about shad