Most of the residents were canal workers, raftsmen, shad fishermen and eel fishermen.

Aside from a shad fisherman, John Mylod, the only visible river creatures were cormorants skimming the water.

Eakins also immortalized the shad fishermen in Gloucester, whose mastery he clearly admired.

If anchored in a strong current, some shad fishermen don't bother with repeated casts.

The broad river on the right, a favorite of shad fishermen later in the spring, gave way to fields and then reappeared as I rode south.

But perhaps the greatest difficulty for shad fishermen is the prevalence of striped bass.

There are so many bass, in fact, that they fill the nets of commercial shad fishermen, who wish they would go away.

And last year the shad fishermen were surprised and delighted to be hauling in their largest catch in generations.

The shad fishermen pulling up their nets in the Hudson are sometimes finding as many or more of the bass as shad.

Most anglers, except for shad fishermen, don't use jigs as often as they should.