Shad Catching Advice...?

[vthokieluke]

I'm fairly new to catching live bait and need some advice. My goal is to find and catch shad. I have been looking in the back of my cove/creek on the Blackwater and throw my castnet on whatever is flipping on the surface. Each throw = a bunch of med/small sized alewives. I've used my electronics and every bait ball I throw on = a bunch of med/small sized alewives . Using electronics is it possible to distinguish shad from alewives? What should I be looking for? I've caught alewives from the surface down to 25 feet and still haven't seen a shad. Any advice or tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks again for everyone's help!

[wishforfish]

Some areas of the lake have more ales than shad, are you looking in a relatively small area or have you covered a couple of miles?

[mytoyzfishing]

what type of fish finder are you using? On my H-Bird ale's look like just tiney dots almost like interferance and the larger shad that you are looking for look more like a school of small fish (more defined arch). If that makes sense?

[vthokieluke]

-->I have mostly just searched in my home cove so it sounds like I need to expand my search quite a bit.

-->I am using a Lowrance HDS 7 Gen 2. The majority of the bait I've thrown on appear to be dots on the monitor. It sounds like I should be looking for small archs.

Thanks guys for the advice.

[just4fun]

I'm fairly new to catching bait also but one thing I have learned is it's almost impossible to catch big bait in deep water unless you have the right net. Gizzards seem to swim out from under your net if it's too light. I could mark and catch ales but only luck into shad even when I saw them flip when they were in deeper water. Finally broke down and got a 10' cracker 1.5 pound per foot. It made all the difference in the world for me.

[leeb]

The right net for the job and what looks like small schools of fish. Pm me and I will show you how to find them on the electronics and have the boat in position for success with deep bait...you can throw the net and we will split the bait ;D

[vthokieluke]

Thanks for the advice. I was actually successful this morning in finding shad using my electronics and caught 8 12" gizzard shad and a bunch of alewives. I was able to catch and release one 10 lb striper this morning and missed 4 others. The wind made me retreat off the water before 10 am.

[stripersteve]

Howdy
You might consider putting a light shining in the water off your dock. Shad will gather under the light late at night until just before sunrise. Look in to the SML striper club...lots of good info there