Registrations have doubled for the seventh annual Bi-State Shad Fishing Contest running April 20-23, 2017. Watch video
Mallards swam around an idol of the Hindu deity Durga, the warrior goddess, setting in the Delaware River at Easton's Scott Park.
Jesse Jorgensen, fishing Wednesday night for American shad from the shore, wasn't sure where it came from, but he patted it for good luck.
It seemed to be working. He'd caught one that might have been a contender in the Bi-State Shad Fishing Contest that gets underway at 8 a.m. Thursday.
"When i first saw it, I saw the flash, right over there," said Jorgensen, of Hampton. "It was pretty damn big."
Jesse Jorgensen, of Hampton, casts for American shad near an idol of the Hindu deity Durga, the evening of April 19, 2017, in the Delaware River at the confluence with the Lehigh River in Easton's Scott Park. He said it wasn't his but he patted it for good luck. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) Conditions on the Delaware River in the Easton/Phillipsburg area are "perfect" for shad, tournament founder and organizer Eric Fistler said Wednesday night.
"It's like the best shad fishing that I've ever seen in my life," Fistler said. "We've been hearing about big ones up and down the river."
He's seen a 7-pounder reeled in aboard his own boat, which would have bested John Peterson's top catch in the 2016 tournament of a 5.836-pound shad. Others have been catching shad in the neighborhood of 6.5 pounds, Fistler said.
"Conditions are perfect. I would call them perfect," the 54-year-old lifelong angler from Williams Township said. "Everybody's catching fish. The shore anglers, boat anglers, everybody's catching them, and they're getting them in large numbers. There's a lot of shad moving up the river."
Registrants for the tournament, started in 2011, nearly doubled to close to 700 this year, Fistler said. The top overall prize is $10,000, and all contestants will be entered into a drawing to win a $12,000 boat package sponsored by Mayberry Marine in Port Murray, Mansfield Township, and Yamaha Outboards, G3 Boats and LoadRite Trailers.
The entry fee is $35, and registration is still open Thursday morning at the Phillipsburg boat launch prior to the 8 a.m. start to the tournament. It runs through 9 p.m. Sunday.
Shad contest offers biggest cash prizes yet
Fistler said he plans to get to the weigh station at the P'burg launch about 6 or 6:30 Thursday morning, and he'll have some help signing up last-minute participants starting about 7 a.m.
Fishing on Wednesday night from shore at Scott Park, at the confluence with the Lehigh River, Darryl Goffreda agreed conditions are right.
"The water's good, the current's good, the fish are in, they're biting," said Goffreda, who lives in Essex County, New Jersey. "I just got some, broke a couple off, my friend got five, boats are catching the living daylights out of them. I think it's good. I think it's going to be a good tournament."
He's been using pink and chartreuse shad darts and flutterspoons -- bright colors that the shad seem to be hitting on.
"I think it's just about perfect conditions right now" for shad, said Steven Lichak, of Wassergass in Lower Saucon Township, as he fishes the evening of April 19, 2017, in the Delaware River at the confluence with the Lehigh River in Easton. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) Across the confluence, near the fish ladder that gets fish around the dam up into the Lehigh River, Steve Lichak also described conditions as "perfect" for shad. He's been going after the anadromous fish -- they hatch in freshwater, live to adulthood in saltwater and return to freshwater to spawn -- his whole life, from Equinunk near the New York border south to Trenton.
"I like the river up high because it causes the fish to just stay in the channel," said Lichak, of Wassergass in Lower Saucon Township. "I think it's just about perfect conditions right now."
Dan Emrick, of Palmer Township, was fly-fishing near Lichak, using a nymph on the end of his leader and a hare's ear a bit higher up, looking to catch whatever he could.
He was glad to hear of shad success from the shore at Scott Park, including one landed Wednesday evening by Boris Buyder, of Phillipsburg. The native of the former Soviet Union said he'd give it to his neighbor to eat.
"If they're getting them from the shore then they're probably hitting pretty good," Emrick said. "The boat is definitely the way to go if you want to bring in numbers. But if they're catching them on the shores then that means that there's pretty good numbers out there, so they're there."
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.