Shad Everywhere But No Bites?

[cjam93]

Hey guys so had a quick question for yall. Today while I was out on the water, I went into a cove that was getting a lot of wind. I looked down at the depth finder and I saw the biggest ball of baitfish that I have ever seen. I could also see fish in and around the ball of baitfish. I went a little farther in and found even more schools of baitfish. Each one had a lot of fish in and around it according to the graph. Me and my dad preceded to throw rattletraps, cranks, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and even a carolina rig for the fish that were down deeper. Yet we could not get a bite to save our lives. All of the balls of baitfish were also tightly schooled together so I assume that the bass were feeding on them. Anyways, what do you do when you have a school of baitfish with active feeding fish mixed in with them, but cant get a bite?

[iabass8]

i don't like fishing massive balls of baitfish. unless they are breaking the surface a lot. there is just a ton of competition vs your lure and the chances go down the larger the bait school gets. you can try and fish directly below them /w a jig or trig as lots of times the larger ones stay below the school and wait for falling shad. i prefer to find the smaller schools of bait if the jig doesn't pan out.

[tatertester]

I've had some success with a small jigging spoon or a crappie jig.

[Swampstud]

I've had some success with a small jigging spoon or a crappie jig.

I was thinkin of a couple episodes of the bass pros that involve jason quinn (sp) in the fall fishin a spoon

[Sam]

Jon the club. It can drive you crazy seeing all of the baitfish and not get any strikes. Happens all the time.

 

All I can suggest is throwing your bait in front and across of the ball and letting it sink to whatever depth you think the bass are holding under the baitfish.

 

You have to have your bait look like a baitfish that was injured by an attacking fish so it is an easy meal for the bass to inhale. A bait smaller or larger may be ignored.

 

Keep on casting to the baitfish and sooner or later one of those big ladies will eat your bait.

[WRB]

Read the thread Misconceptions.

As the water cools the threadfin shad school up and migrate to areas where there food is plentiful, phytoplankton. The bass follow and instinctively know it's time to feed heavily on shad. The problem is trying to compete with live shad when bass are focused on them.

Your high % lure is a structure spoon about the same size as the shad and shad colors with flash. Cast the spoon past the shad school a few yards and let the spoon flutter down through, the jig then spoon under the school. Lots of different types of predator fish eat shad, spoons work for most of them including bass.

Tom

[basshole8190]

Alabama rig around the bait balls

[Grizzn N Bassin]

Maybe small.flukes?

[xbacksideslider]

Around schools, I imagine that my bait gets hit when it happens to be moving authentically within/around the ball. That's hard and unlikely. My experience is that the hits come when a bait ball is breaking against the surface and bait are scattering. That moment is when my bait may appear authentic, a bait panicked away from the ball.

The fluttering spoon, or a fly lined un-weighted slow sinking small swim bait, may look like a wounded bait, falling out of the school. The rip and flutter spoon may look like that but it also may simply trigger a reaction bite.

[quanjig]

Get yourself some scroungers and thread on a superfluke. Cast past the bait and count it down to the bottom of the bait and hang on!

[Clint C.]

Superflukes do the trick for me also!

[cjam93]

That was what was confusing about it, the schools did have predators with them. The fact that they were so tightly schooled is what made me assume that the predators were feeding then.

[quanjig]

My experience has been that if the schools are broken up, they are being preyed upon!!

[JayKumar]

Match the size, shape and color somehow...or go fiippin'!