Shad Kill tactics.....Late winter...trying to warm up

[bishoptf]

Just looking for ideas, Janruary and February have been way below normal this year and the 2 community lakes in mid missouri froze over 2 times. They froze pretty hard through Jan and then thawed out with a brief warm spell and then got walloped again with another week and half of really cold weather and froze up again. They thawed out last week and temperatures have been more back to normal with some warmer days and finally was able to get the boat out today....and nada. Funny thing on the smaller lake that has been drawn down I can walk down the dam and throw a jerkbait and catch bass, lol. I could see from the small lake that it appeared with the last cold snap/freeze that came through there appears to be a shad kill that happened. We do not have threadfin since temps even in normal winters are below what they can survive but we do have lots of gizzard shad. I assume with the warm up and then quick cool down it must have killed a bunch of them. The ones I am seeing are pretty good size, probably over 6in in length. At the larger lake there were lots of floating shad, lots. I can assume for all the ones that I can see on the surface there has to be a lot that floated down to the bottom.

 

My question is what are some things that I can try to catch some LMB given the current situation. Today I threw probably 4-5 different JB versions, 100 size, 110 size, 110+1, small underspin swimbait, spinnerbait, shad rap and frittside 7. Water temps were different in different parts of the lake but ranged from 41 to about 44 degrees so still pretty cold. We are going to get some rain and some warmer weather so hoping by late weekend it can get up in the mid to high 40's.

 

Just looking for what else to try, I thought about tying on a lipless crankbait but wasn't sure what else to try...:)

[Pat Brown]

I like fishing not shad stuff during shad kills.  Jigs are great.  I like to find where the birds are not around - bass seem to spend a lot of the time hiding from the birds during the day time on my lakes but they still like to be on structure and cover that is near the action.  I will pick this structure and cover apart with a jig and fish it slow as molasses during a shad kill and realistically I'm hoping for one bite maybe two.

 

During the summer time when a shad kill is happening I'll fish a fluke weightless really slow in 0-7 ft of water and do okay some days.

 

When they have an endless buffet of the real thing and don't have to chase you have to be different from a shad and you gotta be SLOW.

 

Who is down there eating dead shad?  Crawdads for sure. 

 

I like fishing after a shad kill when the bellies are full but during?  Not my favorite.

[GreenPig]

1 - Spoon

2 - Super Fluke with a weighted hook

3 - Huddleston 68 or 5 or 6" Burrito

4 - Spoon

5 - Spoon

[bishoptf]

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

I like fishing not shad stuff during shad kills.  Jigs are great.  I like to find where the birds are not around - bass seem to spend a lot of the time hiding from the birds during the day time on my lakes but they still like to be on structure and cover that is near the action.  I will pick this structure and cover apart with a jig and fish it slow as molasses during a shad kill and realistically I'm hoping for one bite maybe two.

 

During the summer time when a shad kill is happening I'll fish a fluke weightless really slow in 0-7 ft of water and do okay some days.

 

When they have an endless buffet of the real thing and don't have to chase you have to be different from a shad and you gotta be SLOW.

 

Who is down there eating dead shad?  Crawdads for sure. 

 

I like fishing after a shad kill when the bellies are full but during?  Not my favorite.

Yeah It was tough, first time fishing through the winter and once water temps dropped below 50 I've had a tough time catching them, throw in the shad kill and oof it was tough today. Although I will say even though the wind was blowing today (gusting to 20) it hit 65 and it was just nice to be on the water.

 

1 hour ago, GreenPig said:

1 - Spoon

2 - Super Fluke with a weighted hook

3 - Huddleston 68 or 5 or 6" Burrito

4 - Spoon

5 - Spoon

 

Yeah I didn't think about the spoon, I have some but not tied on. I had been having luck in the smaller lake (clearer water) with the jerkbait and thought I would have similar success but that was not the case. I think I will have them tied on next time I go out.

 

Thanks for the suggestions...