Next year when I start getting the fish counts I'll post when I'm headed down to fish. I'll probably be doing a 3 day weekend and if like this year, will go to below the John Day dam. I've heard the crowds there are lots lighter than below Bonneville.

If people want to come along we can do a shad fishathon....

They're tasty enough to warrant keeping some each year for smoking. I'd like to play with canning them as I've had canned shad that the Kirkland cannery did years ago before it closed up shop. It was better than tuna.

The brine I used was the Luhr Jensen recipe for salmon that called for soy sauce. I forget the brine name that the factory assigned it. Used alder for chips and smoked the shad for about 12 hours in the bottom two shelves of a Big Chief. Used three pans of chips as I wanted a golden brown color on the fish. Also I scaled the fish before I smoked them. No heads, no tails.