Dorado

The Threadfin Shad fry are plentiful and small so you need to stand apart. I like to match the hatch, but focus on various ways to isolate a feeding bass’ attention. The key word too is ‘feeding’. At night, when the Shad are close to shore and prolific; I ignore all of the visible signs of baitfish until I see the surface commotion from predatory fish. This will make for the most efficient use of your time. These listed techniques have been killer for years now and I hope they work for others 1) 3” white or smoke grub on a 1/4 oz chartreuse roadrunner or a 1/15 oz ned rig TRD, The Deal specifically. I’ll locate the school and lob casts around the area I mentally mapped out, just passing the edges of the school, a foot or two subsurface, waking it even sometimes, while lightly bouncing the tip of my rod on the retrieve. 2) drop shot right in the middle of the school with a long leader (“18). Rebarb Roboworm light wire hook with either: SXE Shad 4.5” Roboworm ST, 2.5” Gulp!Alive Black Shad, or Zoom Tiny Fluke in Smokey Shad. I let the bait fall on semislack line then twitch up to only repeat. If no action after a 2-3 rounds, I’ll reel in some feet and try the dance again. I get more fish fishing the drop shot more aggressively than other times of the year. 3) exception to the baitfish imitation rule, but has caught me bigger fish, is to throw a weightless Trick Worm in a bright color that stands out like a sore thumb. In my case, the Candy Bug with the tip dipped in Spike It Dip-n-Glow gets destroyed from the the start of the shad spawn thru early fall. Sidenote: can’t speak on personal experience, yet, but I have a buddy who swears by using a finesse mojo rig with a GYCB 3” Senko. He’ll incorporate a twitch, twitch, pause retrieval almost like working a weightless soft jerkbait At least the bass are easier to catch during the shad spawn than walleye. That’s a puzzle I’ll never figure out.

I fish from bank and started using the bow and arrow technique this year. I have saved countless ned rigs, grubs, chatterbaits, and squarebills mastering this. Best of all, no equipment required! Look it up! I agree with @scaleface that having a telescopic pole as a back up would be the most practical tool from the shore.

That’s a very good example of contrasting the two. Thanks for chumming in! Valuable lesson learned last night. I need to go back and stick em because they all had bluegills in their mind. @smalljaw67 That was such a well written response. I owe you a crypto currency beer...... still pondering how that could work lol. Thank you

For my own edification, the term ‘fast action’ can be relative depending on various techniques i.e cranking rod vs. Spinnerbait rod? I always thought fast action referred to the flex in the tip and all manufacturers conformed to the same rating categories Now, it’s another nuance to add if technique is added to the equation?

Went bank fishing tonight and lost three decent bass consecutively. All fish were lost on the initial headshake. Used a Storm Wildeye Live Sunfish and removed the bottom treble hook to make it weedless since the reeds are already starting to emerge. At at this point, I’m relying on a stout VMC top hook. Used a BPS cranking rod (medium pwr, fast action) and 12# fluoro. I’m new to soft swimbait fishing and hoping I can get some experienced anglers to assist with the troubleshooting. Was it because I was using a parabolic cranking stick that wasn’t stiff enough? Should cranking rods only be used with hard lures with treble hooks to load effectively? My hooksets were side sweeping, which is how I set on squarebills and do just fine, but should I set it like a jig?

SK Bitsy Tube - Pumpkin w/ green fk Gitzit 3.5” Tourney Tube- Brown Craw These two have been my all-time favorite bed baits to throw in urban ponds. If I slowly drag these across their bedroom, then I can expect to see the nose down, tail up position

Great stuff!

I’ll play: 1) Cavitron Buzzbait - never caught a single fish off any buzzbait for that matter but won’t stop this guy from trying. Guys on this site swear by em 2) Football Jigs w/ Craw trailers- I usually get snagged fairly early on whenever I tie one on. I’ll always persuade myself to reverting back to a Texas-rigged soft plastic to avoid getting frustrated. 3) Livetarget Sunfish Hollow Body- during the summer, Had some exhilarating blowups, including one from a nice Channel Cat last year. I either set the hook too early or these bass are coming up initially to stun it when I’m walking the dog. Problem is I never got a follow up 4) Swimbaits (generally speaking)- simply because I never had the proper Swimbait gear until my bday this month. I made the rookie mistake of throwing a 3oz rainbow trout glide bait on a crank bait rod with 12# co-polymer. During the motion of my second cast, it snapped at its highest point flying a football field’s distance. Lesson? Make the initial investment into proper gear with specifications that match respective lure ratings.

Started a new job so been too busy to fish lately. And when I have it’s been for crappie. But, Went tonight and got this ~3.5# to swipe a white grub on an under spin.

I’m going to Florida on my next vacation. Incredible!

All this grub talk gave me the itch to throw one tonight. It’s so consistent post spawn for my waters it’s like clockwork. Chartreuse Roadrunner with a white 3” Zoom grub

My favorite way to catch post spawn bass is to “wake” a 3” white grub at night. You gotta try it!

Those rally grubs look fantastic. Pearl and smoks are essential. I would add the following colors to your arsenal: -GYCB Grub In baby bass and natural shad -Berkley PowerGrub in Pumpkin Seed -Kalin’s Lunker Grub in Ron’s Craw Grubs also imitate bass fry and baby crawdads so don’t neglect those patterns when covering the spectrum

Candybug

I like the 1.5 in both sexy Shad and Bluegill. 2.5 in both chili Craw and chartreuse with Black Back. I fish heavy pressured ponds, so I opt for silent where available. The KVD Squarebills are decent cranks for when you’re starting out, but the stock hooks are dull. Nowadays, for slightly higher price, I go for Lucky Craft or Berkley Squarebills in the same colors mentioned above.

@gimruis dude that’s a trip of a lifetime!

This is my favorite tip so far.

Do you fish these under a bobber? How do you retrieve? Thanks

I also own a Lowrance Hook 4x for my kayak and absolutely love it! Strongly recommend it

So this is my most productive summer night technique hands down. My favorite color is a candybug Trick Worm with the tail dipped in some chartreuse Spike It dye. You can drag it weightless tx-rigged thru the weeds and also by lightly tossing it on top of weeds to eventually glide them in pockets right against the banks. It’s almost guaranteed a strike in my books if a bass is holding in that area

Great reminder and the truth is in the puddin’

Favorite spawn baits are 2.5”-2.75” natural-colored tubes on the lightest tube jig head possible. Took a pic of my all-star lineup for the past 3 seasons

Just picked up my first packs of UV Speed Worms in Cali 420 and Junebug. What size/style hook and techniques do you recommend? They are tough to find at brick and mortar retailers so I had to buy them online. Thanks In advance

I think a small tube (2.5”-2.75”), like this Gitzit tournament tube (Brown Craw in pic below) is the most underrated spawning bed bait around. It’s so fun to sight fish and watch the males go tail down when you drag one across the nest. Landed 2 decent ones this late AM.