Hit the Cooper River’s Tailrace Canal for spring shad action
When the calendar turns to March and pollen begins to drape South Carolina, Capt. Joe Dennis of Chasin’ the Wild Outdoors TV and Captain J Hook Charters heads to the Tailrace Canal below Lake Moultrie in Moncks Corner in search of shad.
“The shad run begins here in late February, but the hottest action takes place in March,” said Dennis (843-245-3762). “They run up the Cooper River and are a blast to catch.”
It’s no secret, and Dennis said it’s a popular place this time of year for anglers.
“You’ll see more boats than normal, but this river has plenty of room,” he said.
It has plenty of shad too, so he said anglers shouldn’t let a little crowding keep them off the water.
“From the William Dennis Boat Landing all the way up to the Pinopolis Dam, shad will be thick. Many anglers think you have to go all the way up to the dam, but you can catch them all up and down the river,” he said.
The weather in March can be fickle, but Dennis said once these shad begin their run upriver, nothing stops it.
“I had a client come up from Florida a few years ago in mid-March. We’d had unseasonably warm weather in the high 60s and low 70s, but when he got here, a cold front dropped the temperature drastically. He was afraid it would ruin our chances, but we had a fine day,” he said. “A cold front is unpleasant for anglers, but it won’t stop the shad from biting.”
Dennis uses small lures like 1/16-ounce jigs with small grubs.
“I think I do the best with a small curly-tail grub in chartreuse with glitter, on a jighead that’s pink or chartreuse, or a combination of those colors,” he said.
Some of his clients like to use fly rods, and Dennis said they catch plenty of shad on small, colorful flies.
These fish range in size from 12 inches long up to 25 inches long and even bigger, and they put up a strong fight on light (and even medium) rods. Dennis uses Catch The Fever Precision Crappie rods paired up with 1000- to 2000-sized spinning reels spooled with 10-pound test Slime Line monofilament.
It’s pretty basic fishing, he said, which adds to the fun of it.
“You don’t need electronics for this. You’re just casting, letting your lure drop, then working your lure in. Shad have thin, paper-like mouths, similar to crappie. So when you’re hooked up, just keep steady pressure. You don’t want to horse them in; just keep steady pressure and reel,” he said.
Dennis guides for numerous species on numerous bodies of water. To see all his past TV episodes, check him out at YouTube.com/@ChasinTheWildOutdoorstv.
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