Shad in creeks

[lund1]

I'm still stymied by catching gizzard shad....I just saw Bentrod say ( in a report) that shad were easy to find in the creeks ....not by me! I've got a good, heavy 10' calusa , I can throw it reasonably well..... Got good electronics....( not in the bow though)
I just don't know where to look and how to find them! I fish the BW exclusively and know the primary creeks....I scouted them last Week looking for bait in 30' or less....flipping in the shallows....I found a few bait balls way down....but nothing could be described as easy to find.
Can anyone offer a tutorial? It's clearly the big difference between catching and not....thanks guys....

[piper]

What Tyler really means by easy bait is he went to his bait tank and pulled some out

Lund..I dont think the bait has been very consistent..for every "good" bait report I bet there are a hundred of challenging ones. Look at stripedyams recent threads. He mentioned "easy" bait one day to them being challenging to find the next. One day about a month ago I found some nice numbers in 15 foot of water...this was a complete fluke and not sure why as the water temps had barely moved. The past few weeks I cant find in anything less then 50. You are not alone and the only advice I have is to keep checking and throwing.

[mwardncsu]

Mar 26, 2014 13:44:13 GMT -5 piper said:

What Tyler really means by easy bait is he went to his bait tank and pulled some out

Well, they definitely don't jump out of the lake and into the tank by themselves and if you don't catch more to replenish the ones you use they are not there long either..... I know on the day he's talking about he netted 35 or so big gizzards.


I can't speak a lot for the Blackwater side, but in general you kind of learn the characteristics that hold bait in different conditions / times of year. In the early spring when the water is in the 40's or maybe low 50's and when we have some sunny weather, I'll look in the backs of the creeks that have some natural in-flow (and maybe some muddy water), and shallow muddy flats - as they warm up quicker than the rest of the creek and the shad will often move up in there to the warmer water. Once you are under 10' or so you'll likely not mark them on sonar as you're looking at a spot a couple of feet wide underneath your boat. This is where side-scan shines - lets you see a school of bait over to the side.

In shallow water you may be able to see where they have been stirring up some mud as they root around - or you might just spot a pod of "dark matter" - seeing the school in shallow, clearer water. I'm not real good on that yet myself.....

In the deeper water, if they are not flipping you'll just have to go into search pattern mode - again, side-scan helps here.

If you can, throw off the back of the boat over your xducer - so when you mark them they are generally right down there. A bow-mounted FF is nice in this regard - and you don't have to have a real fancy one as long as you know if you are looking at fish vs. a tree If you need to throw on the bow, adjust your sonar screen so you can see it from the bow, and when you go over a pod, make a mental note of where the transducer was, use the trolling motor to whip the boat around 90 degrees or so and throw the net on that spot.

Temperature / weather swings will push them shallow or deep. Also, seems they generally are shallower early in the morning and later in the evening - deeper during the middle part of the day (not always, but generally applies).

And some days you just have to throw blind and then throw and throw and throw and throw and throw. Just think of catching bait as a part of the hunt - you get the satisfaction of hunting and catching the bait and then the satisfaction of hunting and catching the striper - its a 2 for 1 deal

[smlmike]

I guess you don't see flips as much in the winter because they are hanging closer to the bottom? Summer when I first started casting nets, the flips in the coves where my go to way of probability of hauling in something or my dock light, not so much during the winter, just haven't seen the same habits. I have just now started to use my electronics in search of shad. It's definitely a learning process. I know I have no luck at trying to cast 30'+ down, my cast net and skills don't allow that. Keep throwing......

[emmitt]

lund1 - I feel your pain. I have yet to locate a spot on the BW that constantly or at least sometimes holds bait. I can get ales off the dock but that is not what I am looking for. When I troll the ales I watch the SS but so far nothing but small, deep schools of what appears to be bait. We may need to travel further up river.

[mwardncsu]

Think like a shad..... shad like nasty.........

[lund1]

thanks guys…I know there's no simple answer and I realize its a BIG part of what separates the guys catching from the guys fishing…seems to me to be the hardest part of the whole experience.

Mike…you said Shad like nasty…as in muddy, shallow, slimy, kinda weedy nasty?….for instance…when i go bait hunting in the back of Bull Run, I don't go WAY back…i usually stop around 4-6 feet, look for some flipping, then leave in frustration. Sounds like i need to really stick with it…keep moving all around the very backs of the creeks looking for any of the signs that you mentioned in upper post.

If any of the BW guys care to offer up a few location suggestions I would sure be thankful….I hunt in Bull Run, Silver creek, Staniford, top of gills ( filled with peanuts usually), a few unnamed creeks near the cliffs….anywhere I'm missing?

I'll offer this up in exchange…my house is in the back of silver creek ( below the 3 islands)…I'm gonna leave my new 1500W halogen spot at the end of my dock on all weekend…starting thur night…come throw to your hearts content unless i'm already there…usually good for alewives at some magical moment during the night or early AM….I will say it will break my heart if somebody reports they found all the shad they could handle in the cove next to my house. As far as I'm concerned it's a barren wasteland.

[mwardncsu]

Mar 26, 2014 16:56:11 GMT -5 lund1 said:

Mike…you said Shad like nasty…as in muddy, shallow, slimy, kinda weedy nasty?….for instance…when i go bait hunting in the back of Bull Run, I don't go WAY back…i usually stop around 4-6 feet, look for some flipping, then leave in frustration. Sounds like i need to really stick with it…keep moving all around the very backs of the creeks looking for any of the signs that you mentioned in upper post.

Yep - they are filter feeders so they like muddy, slimy, stuff - though they will eat algae and stuff on limbs, trees, whatever. Sometimes the shallower (and more snaggy) the better. I can't tell you the number of times I'm been in 18"-24" of water and they are flipping out of reach even shallower..... Wishing I had a skiff that could get me 6" shallower.

[hillbilly]

I have as much fun chasing bait and netting it, as I do fishing

[getlinewet]

Lund: I fish BW and 2 days ago at about 4pm there were quite a few pods and schools of bait mid channel in and around b32. I was using artificials so I didn't throw on them, but there sure seems to be a lot of life in and around that area. If memory serves the bait fish were hanging in the 14-25 foot range. Water temperature was 49 degrees and the striper were active. Pulled in 3 nice ones just under the bracket in about 1.5 hours of trolling. Several bumps/knockoffs also occurred during the trip

[Deleted]

I began fishing live bait on Anna. One day I started to feel that catching bait was more fun than catching stripers. On that day, I quit using live bait and lure fished for 3 years. At that time, I felt that I was wrong for getting more joy out of catching bait. After all, I was a fisherman not a bait guy.

Once I started at SML, I exclusively lure fished. Once I caught a fish on a 12 inch shad with my Lowrance Rep friend, it has been ON! I have new everything...and I dream about my little sharks trailing to the side of my boat. My net full of monsters that thump when they hit the deck. The look on the shad's face when I pierce his nose. The panic that the shad feels when he gets chased.

Hi..my name is stripedyam, and not only am I a freaking nut job, I am addicted to big gizzard shad!

I have a bunch to learn but I have yet to find a time from November to now that I was not able to catch these boys at 3 am in my creeks of choice. No doubt, once light hits, I have found it more difficult but still feasible. And another thing, I will throw until my arms fall off if that is what it takes! Tenacity, confidence, patience, knowledge, experience and most importantly...PASSION!

[Deleted]

If only for a moment, my wife were a gizzard shad, the spark would certainly be rekindled.....

[hillbilly]

Well......I don't have that much fun catching bait . We may have to find you a 12 step program Yam

[piper]

Mar 27, 2014 6:09:37 GMT -5 Yam said:

If only for a moment, my wife were a gizzard shad, the spark would certainly be rekindled.....

So your saying you like em nasty with a little slime...interesting

[BentRod]

"Easy" is a relative term.

Mward gave some good info on the how to. I've been doing this live bait thing long enough I know exactly what I'm looking for and I can pretty much ride in any creek and tell you how the shad looks. I do this with my electronics and my eyes (and a sixth sense that mward clearly is missing!). Check out some of the sonar shots on here so you can see exactly what you need to be looking for. If I can't find any with my electronics or my eyes, then I learned a long time ago that hard work is the only other way to locate them. They don't just jump in the boat..sometimes you gotta work your butt off for them and it sucks, but you learn more about the "how and where" in doing it. Believe me I've spent plenty of days drenched to my core looking for just one measley shad. I've also spent 2hrs to break 300yds of ice so I could catch shad that I knew were under it. So if I can catch 2-20 shad/throw every throw, I'm calling it easy!! And Yam's words to describe shad catching are right on. You've gotta be slightly insane when it comes to catching bait..if you give up too soon, you're likely missing out on something right under your nose.

I can't help you on the Blackwater as I've only caught shad there maybe once in the past 5yrs. It may be tougher but we've had plenty of inflows the past two years..there should be some shad in the upper creek arms. My first location to look from where I'm located would be Gills then Standiford. Don't necessarily look for flips this time of year either..that doesn't mean there isn't any shad shallow..there very well may be a massive school of shad in 2-4ft of water just leisurely moving around. And often times even if they do flip, you have to give them 15-20min of silence before they will..if you're motoring around with the big motor, they might not show. Look for sun beaten areas in the afternoon in the backs of the creeks.