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Posts: 253
| Here is Northern Illinois our lakes are going to be completely clear of ice in the next few days. I am planning on hitting the water next weekend and would like to have a better understanding of what the shad patterns are. Do they stay schooled up in deep water at ice out? At what point ( water temperature related I am sure) do they move into the weed edge? Then, what point do they move back out to open water. I want to try and be more effective in my approach this spring so any input would be appreciated.
Steve |
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Posts: 2361
| I fish lakes with lots of shad, all the time. I have reached the conclusion that it is not really important where the shad are most of the time, because they are everywhere, and sooner or later they will be everywhere else. I would more likely look for positive temp situations, good water colors, and cover near deeper water, these are more likely to concentrate musky than trying to find concentrations of shad.
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Posts: 281
Location: ROckford IL | I found that when the shad black out your screen the muskies seem harder to catch but when the shad are balled up, the muskies seem easier to catch, thats just what I seen so far. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | From what I know about cisco's, they move up to the shallows in late fall where they spawn in that cooler water - under 40 degrees. During the spring and summer months, however, because they are such a touchy fish relative to temperature and relative oxygen levels associated with those temps, they will predominantly travel along the thermocline. On windy days, the return flow of the cooler deeper water replaces the warmer wind-driven surface water. In these instances I would assume the cisco would rise in the water column to stay within their comfort zone. That said, and maybe this is for another topic, but those wind-driven shorelines are awesome places to fish. The thermocline will raise on the windblown side, making for comfortable temps, plus, the little bit of current the wind generates ends up pushing larvae, waterfleas, plankton and other small stuff they like to eat to that shoreline; not to mention it stirs up the silt from the waves pounding in, which also produces food.
Where there's food and comfort for the cisco, the cisco will be there. Where you find cisco, you find musky.
Edited by Sam Ubl 3/19/2010 12:39 PM
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Location: minocqua, wi. | just look for the shorelines with the eagles lined up in the trees and you'll find where the ciscoes spawn. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Bigman - 3/19/2010 11:56 AM
I found that when the shad black out your screen the muskies seem harder to catch but when the shad are balled up, the muskies seem easier to catch, thats just what I seen so far.
When I position over big pods of baitfish, I like ripping 3D's and Dawgs (or whatever you like) right through them to seperate the schools and cause disorientation. I don't know exactly, because I'm obviously above the water, but I imagine a muskies attention would be drawn to the commotion maker, furthermore, have an easier time identifying a solo bit of prey, rather than the schooling twins. |
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Location: oswego, il | FSF said it right, look for the warmest water and you will find the muskies. That difference may only be 1/2 a degree too. If it is a sunny day I have seen the shad up shallow after ice out but i would still target the wamrest water, expecially with any cover. |
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Posts: 31
Location: Fairfield, IA | Just a question for understanding. The original post asked about shad. The thread then turned to cisco.
Is that due to the similarity in their schoolingand the way musky feed on them or am I missing something else here?
DAve. |
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Posts: 2361
| Rogiecrockett - 3/19/2010 6:16 PM
Just a question for understanding. The original post asked about shad. The thread then turned to cisco.
Is that due to the similarity in their schoolingand the way musky feed on them or am I missing something else here?
DAve.
They aren't particular similar. |
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| Shad and ciscoes are not all alike... |
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Posts: 182
Location: musky waters of SE, WI | Shad spawn during the spring around 60 deg, Ciscos spawn in the fall around 40 deg. Two very different things.
For the original post spawning times for shad may vary from say 55 deg to almost 70 deg. So what you have is a large school of shad spawing in shallow areas, while the water temp is say 55 deg, while more schools are stilling waiting out in deeper water. If all the shad in a body of water spawned at the same time it would be chaos. The school in shallow will finish spawning, and ones in the deep will move in. So this could go on for several weeks, were shad are spread out shallower, and deeper. At the same time muskies were spawning, or are done spawning, so these fish may be going after shad in shallow water. Or you may see fish chasing the shad in the deeper water. More likely the muskies in the shallow will be more active to eat a bait.
This exact thing was on at the end of Feb on Musky Hunter with Mike Hulbert talking about the shad spawn when they were on Webster.
Edited by Ryan_Cotter 3/20/2010 12:34 AM
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