Shad & Herring Waters
Last week we took our granddaughter to visit North Carolina cousins. Two of us slipped away from the family visit, heading to a small coastal river. The Hickory Shad were beginning their annual spawning run so we planned to catch a few. I’d never fished for Hickory Shad and was excited to be included in the adventure.
1st Catch Double Herring
We found a great spot in Windsor, NC and fished with several folks playing hooky from work plus a few retired gentlemen of leisure (all names have been withheld to protect my fellow fishermen!). My 1st catch produced a double herring hook up! We ended up catching and releasing over 30 herring (They’re protected. I’d wanted to compare herring and shad roe but it wasn’t meant to be this trip.).
After catching several herring doubles, I landed my 1st Hickory Shad! Fun fishing on light line. We ended up catching quite a few shad releasing most but keeping three for the roe and dinner. The shad are boney so I’ll keep exploring recipes for baking and frying. When we got back to town to clean the fish, Ava (granddaughter had to inspect our catch).
Ava Inspecting Shad
Ava approved our catch and made Grandpa Jim promise to take her fishing soon. She remained very sad not to have been included in today’s adventure.
Prior to dinner my fishing partner baked the shad roe to perfection. He’s given me permission to share his recipe:
Bacon Wrapped Shad Roe
Ingredients
Shad Roe Sacks, Bacon, Salt & Pepper, Lemon Juice, No Stick Spray
Preparation
Clean and rinse roe sacks. Sprinkle salt and pepper on each roe sack then drizzle with lemon juice. Wrap each sack in a piece of bacon. Use two pieces of bacon if the roe sack is real big and one piece does not seem to wrap it up well (you never can have to much bacon!). Put a piece of tin foil on a baking pan and spray it with no stick spray. Lay the bacon wrapped roe sacks on the foil and sprinkle with more pepper to garnish. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes or until the bacon is done.
Another great fishing trip in the books! When fishing don’t forget to make memories with children and grandchildren!!!