At our local flyfishingclub plans where made for an outing to Rotterdam to pursue shad.
At one of the club meetings the neccesary flies where tied and dates where picked for the venue.
The location was the ” Nieuwe Waterweg” which was in facto the artificial mouth of the Rhine with the North Sea.
The best time to fish for shad was towards the low tide when the shad
would gather in the lower part of the waterway as they entered from the sea.
The signs to watch out where jumpin fish and diving gulls as the shad would hunt for small baitfish.
My equipment consisted out of a #6 sinking tip line with a short leader and a small chartreuse weighted fly.

So far the plans, we arrived at the outgoing tide and carefully positioned ourselves near the breakwater.
The waterway was a major shipping channel for oceangoing vessels we took care to watch for bowwaves.
We did not wanted to be flushed out to England.
In the beginning of the tide a few shad showed themselves but not in the numbers we had hoped for.
I was into fish at the first few casts when I caught my first be it little european sea bass.
Unfortunately that was it for the rest of the day as the shad where just not there.
From locals we gathered that fishing for shad had been really bad so
I guess they had not arrived in numbers yet.
In the end I had caught one fish of a new species.
Watching all that shipping entertained me through the rest of the day.