Since the fish aren t feeding on anything anyway, attempting to match the hatch is pointless. I use the rod to import that action but, on the retrieve, I do it by reaching ahead on the line and stripping back with a quick jerk, letting the incoming line accumulate in a stripping basket I wear around my waste. Same technique as I use for saltwater fly fishing. Flinging a weighted streamer and a sinking line, of course, calls for a rod with some backbone. Plan on losing many of them, too.
Shad have very tender mouths.
Until you get the hang of going with the flow, you ll tear the lure out of those loose lips. So the technique is to let the fish run and tire itself out. I wonder again how I happened to get too busy to wade the Delaware River for them this season. On the other hand, there s the Hudson in New York and, farther north, the Connecticut and, in Maine, the Penobscot. And the rivers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.