shad shutdown

[dinkman]

me and my fishing partner fish a small pond (5-10 acres) and it has a great population of shad, bass and bluegill.  we do great catching bass when the sun is high and bright but as soon as the shadows hit we can't get a nibble.  mostly catch them on lipless cranks and shallow running cranks.  any suggestions, i'm running out of stuff to throw.

max depth- 8'

moderate stain, 1-2' vis

trashy bottom with leaf decay and black bottom, scattered brush around the edges but little middle cover or structure.

water temp today was 68-69 deg.

[Chaz Hickcox]

Sounds like they're fattening up when the sun brings the shad together, but then they go their holes when the shade comes. If you can get to the sparse cover, I would guess they are suspending off of that while they wait. At that point it would come down to finesse and reaction strikes. Basically, slow down as much as possible.

[Shane J]

I'd try a little topwater. My personal favorite, and a bass slaying machine, is the Rage Tail Shad, in green pumpkin/chartreuse. Rig it up on a 4/0 EWG (or a 5/0 Twistlock), and hit the shallows with that. As it gets later, switch the color to a solid green pumpkin, then black neon as it gets darker. With this bait, you can work it slow and even pause around potential bass holding spots. You can keep this bait in the strike zone longer, and still have that irresistable action working for you. Bass love 'em. Good luck out there.

[Paul Roberts]

me and my fishing partner fish a small pond (5-10 acres) and it has a great population of shad, bass and bluegill. we do great catching bass when the sun is high and bright but as soon as the shadows hit we can't get a nibble. mostly catch them on lipless cranks and shallow running cranks. any suggestions, i'm running out of stuff to throw.

max depth- 8'

moderate stain, 1-2' vis

trashy bottom with leaf decay and black bottom, scattered brush around the edges but little middle cover or structure.

water temp today was 68-69 deg.

I have a question:

What time of day do you start your fishing?

[dinkman]

we've tried all times of day throughout the summer, starting with first light, then starting around lunch and then starting in late afternoon.  we have trouble getting bites on any kind of topwater, mostly frogs, buzzbaits and poppers until the crankbait bite picks up when the sun gets high.  i'll give that rage tail shad a shot, haven't tried any of those yet.  keep bring suggestions though if you have any.

[lknbassman]

Dinkman, the scenario you are describing is typical fall fishing. The bass, bluegills, crappie, etc are now all "opportunisitic" feeders which means they can eat when they want to most of the time which then means your opportunity to catch them this time of year is conditional and limited to that window unless you can fool them or aggrivate them in to biting.

So now what do you do? Those fish are either suspending or getting into or under cover which means if they are suspended that's about as tough as it gets because a reaction bite is going to be tough to elicit. If they are on cover (wood, rock, etc) then you have a shot. I'd find out if they are on the cover by fishing it THOROUGHLY and I mean wear it out with cranks, jigs, worms, etc and beat every inch of it that you can. If you do it enough, you'll tick one of them off and it'll bite which is how KVD gets so many bites, he makes them bite most of the time with a reaction vs a feeding bite. They are predators and mean by nature so tick em off some how which means be right in their faces and they'll bite. If you can't then fish when they feed and that's usually first thing and right before dark at least on the reservoirs here in NC and most everywhere I've fished as that's when the shad are most active.

[roadwarrior]

Buy a few Sworming Hornets and Lake Fork

Tackle Magic Live Shad trailers. You fish them

to imitate dying shad.

8-)

[Paul Roberts]

Another question:

Why did you title this shad shutdown? What are you seeing with the shad?

[dinkman]

no reason in particular Paul, just a catchy title to get ppl to read the thread and offer up some advice and tips.  Thanks to everyone for the tips, I'll keep everyone posted as we fish and see what we can figure out on our end.

[WRB]

me and my fishing partner fish a small pond (5-10 acres) and it has a great population of shad, bass and bluegill. we do great catching bass when the sun is high and bright but as soon as the shadows hit we can't get a nibble. mostly catch them on lipless cranks and shallow running cranks. any suggestions, i'm running out of stuff to throw.

max depth- 8'

moderate stain, 1-2' vis

trashy bottom with leaf decay and black bottom, scattered brush around the edges but little middle cover or structure.

water temp today was 68-69 deg.

Your shad are more than likely threadfin shad that feed on phytoplankton. The phytoplankton rises during the bright sunlight hours near the water surface and the shad follow their food source. The reason this is important is to understand why shad school in open water during the mid day to feed and hide in cover during low light and dark hours.

In a small lake predator prey activity is intense, survival of the fittest; the bass eat every prey fish available; shad, bluegill young bass and crawdads.

Threadfin shad have low tolerant to water colder than 45 degrees and die off in colder water.

Look for the bass to be tight to brush cover during low light hours and roaming the lake during bright sunny day light hours and being active this time of year during the mid day and afternoon period.

A wide variety of lures should work.

WRB

[dinkman]

thanks WRB, we were trying the opposite effect earlier in the year, making longs casts with cranks and tops in the morning and then flipping when the sun got high.  once we figured out to fish during midday then we didn't flip much anymore.  that's a backwards approach to my normal day but makes sense when you think of it in terms of the bass being that tuned into the shad.

we did find a dead shad floating earlier this year that was  in excess of 8-9".  shad were introduced to that pond illegally so i'm not 100% sure the type, all the research i looked up points to threadfin over gizzard but i'm not an expert on shad.

[WRB]

8" to 9" would be a gizzard shad, thread fin are about 1/2 that size. Gizzard shad will compete with the same zoo plankton needed for the survival of the young bluegill and bass and that is not good for a small lake. Zoo plankton tend to live within the cover where the fish fry live and make up a very important food chain.

You may want to try a BBZ-1 4" swimbait in natural shad, slow sink or surface model.

You also need to consider the fall turnover factor, Google; Islandnet, fall lake turnover.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/turnlakes.htm

WRB