Tom Clifford fishes for shad under Chain Bridge, on the District side of the Potomac. He's holding a lure called a Nungesser, above which is a shad dart. (John Kelly/The Washington Post) Perspective ...

I had to be tall enough to wear hip boots. That was the rule, and from the time I was 4 until my 8-year-old legs met the criteria, that rule really pissed me off. I’d sit on the basement steps while ...

More than 70 years ago, a 14-year-old Jim Fearson took an after-school job at a little gas station on the Virginia side of Chain Bridge. Each spring, the river below would fill with shad on their ...