They're not very pretty. And they are definitely not great to eat. But shad sure are fun to catch. And with somewhere near three quarters of a million of 'em swimming up the Columbia River right now, they are not too hard to catch.

A group of us headed down to the Columbia on Sunday to see if we could get in on some shad fishing action. And we did.

While most of the anglers fishing below the John Day Dam last weekend were anglers looking to hook a summer chinook salmon, there were a few shad fishers too, and most were catching fish.

Shad are not big fish, but they fight big. When hooked on fairly light gear, a shad will fight just about as well as any fish around. Most
shad will run in the 14- to
20-inch range and weigh
2 to 5 pounds. Shad are fairly thick in body depth but narrow in width, which accounts for some of their ability to fight when hooked. And, unfortunately, they have very bony meat. That narrowness, and their multi-boned skeleton, makes them darned hard to fillet and cook.

Not that shad can't be made into a meal. Many shad fishing veterans who like to eat their catch will clean the fish, then smoke and/or pressure-cook them. When canned, the bones become soft and edible.

Others, including our group of shad hunters, choose not to mess with having to deal with the long process to make the fish edible, and just play the catch-and-release game.

And if you hit it right, the catch-and-release game with shad can become arm-numbing after a while.

While our group only caught about 50 shad on Sunday, the run just seems to be beginning, and when it is hot, it is not uncommon for an angler to catch 50 shad or more on a good day.

There are several ways to get the fish to bite. And there are several lures that shad will hit.

Boat anglers can use tiny gold- or brass-colored Flicker spinners, or Triple Teazers, or Dick Nite spoons. Put enough weight on the line to get the lures down near the bottom and either anchor up in fairly shallow water (10 to 20 feet), or troll slowly upstream.

Some boat anglers will even use downriggers to help get the little lures down to where the fish are.

From the bank there are a couple of different ways to rig up. One involves plunking, the other involves drift fishing.

Plunkers will use a fairly heavy weight on the end of their line and about two feet up the line will tie on, via a three way swivel, a small spinner or spoon. But the most important aspect of the plunking rig is some kind of flotation, via a cork ball or foam cylinder, put on the leader ahead of the little lure. The floatation device helps keep the lure out and away from the weighted main line, where the fish can hit it.

The rig is then tossed out 20 or 30 feet from the bank where the weight will drop down to the bottom and hold the lure in the current until a shad hits it.

Several anglers on the Columbia were using this method fairly effectively on Sunday.

Drift fishing with a small shad dart is the other common method used by bank anglers. A small Slinky style weight, or pencil lead is added on the main line just above the shad dart to help get it near the bottom. Then the rig is tossed out into the current, about three-quarters upstream, and allowed to drift downstream. The angler should be reeling at a slow to medium pace as the lure and weight drift down.

The hits seem to come in spurts, probably because the fish are swimming up in schools. But when there is close to a million shad in the river, many times the wait is not long.

They're not glamorous, and they're not high on the list of desirable table fare, but one thing is for sure, shad are a blast to catch. Hundreds of thousands of shad are on their annual migration up the Columbia right now, if you've ever wanted to catch one, now is the time to go do it.

* Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at
rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.