Shad Tournament to Start Tomorrow!

Several fishermen were out on the Delaware warming up for 

the shad tournament tomorrow...let's hope the weather holds!

Posted by: Noël Jones

I walked down to the river today and saw the city prepping for the four-day Shad Tournament that starts tomorrow, according to three guys I bumped into on the lookout deck overlooking the convergence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers in Easton. "Oh, look he got one!"
said one. "Yep, that other guy just got one too--they're all catchin' 'em." "There out there!" said the third. I asked when the tournament was going to start, and how long it would last, any they told me. This is the kind of conversation I would expect, but what the first guy said next to his buddies surprised me.

"Don't know how long we'll be able to do this, with all that hydraulic fracturing they got goin' on with the gas drillers up North."

The other two frowned and shook their heads in acknowledgement. "So you heard about that?" I said to the first guy. "Yeah," he tells me, "this river is the most endangered river in America...and the new governor took a lot of campaign money from those people.""Well," I said, "I guess the only bright side is that we may have finally found an issue that isn't just for the right or the left--we all get our drinking water here--15 million of us." We all shook our heads at the idea, I thanked them for the info and moved upriver along Scott Park, where I am happy to report, I saw MEN WORKING. I also saw lots of individuals and families on the river, even though it was the middle of the day. Kids on the jungle gyms, people on bikes, a couple guys fishing from the riverbank, and families just out for a walk along the river. A mother was teaching her daughter how to ride a bike. It was a beautiful day, sunny, and no sign of the storms that are rumored to be headed our way.

The Express-Times reports that registration for the tournament is now officially closed. The tournament begins at 9am tomorrow and ends at 6pm on Saturday and the top cash prize is $800. 

I'm curious about these fish--I grew up fishing in Alaska, and we didn't have shad. Mostly salmon and trout in the rivers. What do you use to catch shad? How big do they get? And are they good eating? They might be good eating this year, but if all those hundreds of new natural gas wells get approved for drilling along the river this year, this may be the last year where it's safe to eat them...