What do schools of shad actually look like?

[SuperVehicle001]

I've been out on my kayak and I think I see small fish making boils in the water. I've tossed spinner baits past where I think the school of shad is but I got nothing. I assume they are shad but I realized that through all my reading, youtube video watching I've never seen something that shows me "see this is what shad look like when a school is on the surface". Anyone have a picture or a video or some way to definitively show me?

[lo n slo]

i dont have any videos but, lets say it is shad you're seeing. try something like a top water or some kind of plastic next time. flukes and texas rigged worms have produced for me in the past.

[scaleface]

Google it  , lots of pictures .

 

  There is no reason to think that casting at a school of shad will catch a bass .  If there  are bass actively hitting them and there will be no mistake when they are  , then you might catch some . 

[BuzzHudson19c]

With schools of bait fish that "boil" on the surface you will see them feeding lightly, kind of pecking at the surface quietly. Depending on vegetation it sounds like rice crispies and kissing. Then there will be erratic splashing and a sudden rush of fish evading a predator.

[SuperVehicle001]

3 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Google it  , lots of pictures .

 

  There is no reason to think that casting at a school of shad will catch a bass .  If there  are bass actively hitting them and there will be no mistake when they are  , then you might catch some . 

I tried and all I come up with are pictures of lures for topwater fishing that look like shad. I did some searching before posting here.

[Russ E]

From my experience, bass are usually only around the schools of shad. when they are feeding.

schools of shad roam around a lot. bass seem to hold on structure waiting to ambush the shad as they swim by.

if you don't see shad jumping frantically  out of the water, I would look for ambush points nearby and fish there.

 

[toni63]

I hate to say it, but when you start seeing schools of bait fish that are being attacked by predators, you'll instantly know it. Imagine an old 55 gallon metal drum with water standing on top in that metal ring, then that drum getting hit with a sledgehammer and the water blasting off the top. That times whatever size the school is is the best way I can describe kinda what it looks like on the surface. Bass even come busting up through the school and break the surface when they are actively feeding.

 

When a school is near the surface you can see the swirling movement in the water too, so just keep looking for anything that is an anomaly on the surface, that seems out of place. Of course when there is a lot of chop or even a breeze you might not see the swirl, but in calm water you can make it out. But like other posters have said, if you don't see bait fish breaking the surface and that kind of explosive reaction of the school, there probably aren't any bass feeding on it at that time.

 

I'll try to get some pictures of it and post them here.

 

 

[WRB]

Sitting low to the water surface in a kayak you can't see down into the water unless it's nearly straight down. You can see across the waters surface, unless it's flat without any wind seeing a school of baitfish is nearly impossible until those baitfish break the surface. 

Your best indicator is birds that feed on Shad like Grebes, you can see those from a long distance. If the Grebes are diving and feeding on Shad you will see the baitfish in their beaks when the bird surfaces. 

You can also see baitfish jumping out of the water sometimes referred to a "flicking". Since baitfish are darker color on the back to camouflage them from predators above the surface they are very hard to see when swimming undisturbed. 

What to look for; a cloud like shadow near the surface when no clouds are in the sky.

Flicking or jumping baitfish and what looks like rain drops when the baitfish are "puddling" or feeding on the surface. 

Baitfish including Shad school up into a ball when predators are attacking them, you can clearly see this tight school with sonar units. When undisturbed the school spreads out and can look like a cloud underwater with sonar units.

Easy to see and hear predator fish like bass feeding on baitfish on the surface, not so easy underwater without sonar or watching birds.

Shad school size varies from a football size to football field size.

Tom

[68camaro]

I was out last week and threw top water and paddletail plastics just beyond baitfish boiling the surface, dragging threw the activity I caught a ton of stripers.  If I threw the topwater into the boil more often than not it was bumped or taken right away, super fun time.

[toni63]

As promised. A selection, of schools in the water, being attacked by marauding bass and up close.

[bchase44]

My local lake is 6500 sq feet and has threadfin shad.

 

I've seen small 5 foot circles with shad swimming in circles and they seem to just sit there but if you watch long enough they move slowly.

 

At the same lake, one time I stopped to fish at an access point up a creek channel from the lake.. I was amazed to walk up on this 40 foot wide creek and see thousands of small fish swimming in a large circle.. It filled the entire creek. I immediately put on a small shad crankbait, and every cast I could feel the bait (or line) bumping these baitfish. This was 3 or 4 years ago and I wish I could recall what time of year it was but I'm assuming it was fall.  I never caught a fish though fishing through all those baitfish.