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Posts: 280
Location: Pewaukee WI | I'm fishing a river where I know their is shad. What is the best way to find them(location)? |
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Posts: 132
Location: Elkhart, IN | I don't river fish, but, I do fish lakes that have shad in them. While casting watch for shad popping on the surface. Also, be sure to look for them on your graph as you work an area. When you see them balled up on the graph there is usually a fish or three working on them. Make sure you work the whole area well. Move around where you marked the ball. Don't be afraid to fish away from structure. A lot of the time you will find more that way too. Remember to fish above them or at the worst through them. Sometimes this means throwing topwater over 40' of water.
I hope this helps some.
Brian |
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Posts: 44
Location: St. Louis, MO | I look for them off main lake points at this time of the year. Brian is right, look for them balling up, breaking surface and the schools here in the lakes I fish are HUGE! I must admit, I've yet to nail one while fishing over, under or around the shad. |
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| You can also find them along the channels, especially as the water gets colder. Check for them too in the deep rifts during the cold. Also, cast past the school and allow a deep bait to flitter/crank down below the school, as sometimes the bigger fish will be suspended under them to catch the wounded, especially if there are smaller fish feeding in and around the school. Check out any areas that have smaller water entering, and bends/breaks in the run of the river. Now I must rest... |
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Posts: 1764
Location: Ogden, Ut | Watch for fish-eating birds, especially terns contually working over a small area. They give away the location of shad schools quite regularly.
K. |
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| I fish lots of shad areas and cannot get very excited about the presence of shad, except to say that the presence of shad NEAR good cover seems to be a stimulant ,even on a poor to mediocre day, this can get fish in a positive mood. In heavy shad populated water there can never be enough muskies to be around the many many schools of shad. Wish there were. |
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| Is there any depth that the shad prefer? |
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | Saw lots of shad bouncing last night moved to a different spot where I didn't see any on top of the surface and missed a 40" at the boat and caught a 34. Not that this means anything but in general do you really want to be throwing a lure and competing with natural food? I am sure there are times when this will work but in general if you're not moving fish I would say it's better to look elsewhere. |
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