The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

Anyone know if Shad have moved into the Russian?

Haven't heard any specifics, but they should be there. Fish have been throughout the valley rivers for several weeks now, and the Russian is usually the first to show shad each year. Give it a try and post a report.

I fished for Shad there 2 weeks ago, no shad observed by me. The guys in the Guerneville sporting goods shop told us the were there earlier.

The Press Democrat has a fishing report, which is a week old now: http://fis...p?item=2204788&mode=

RUSSIAN RIVER "Shad have been tough to come by here - mainly because the river's so low that the mouth keeps closing up. The county has been manually opening it back up each week, but the sandbar has been reforming across the river only a day or two later."

Thanks for the replies. I had read on another forum about the mouth of the Russian being closing. I didn't realize the County of Sonoma was manually breaching the sandbar. Is there any way to find out when the County opens the sandbar? Its been tough reading the positive reports of the shad action in the valley rivers and yet nothing really happening on the Russian...not to mention I have been really pumped to chase shad after reading Phil's article. In any case, I may take a crack at the Russian this evening.