Shad Kill!

[roadwarrior]

Okay boys, I need your advice.

There has been a MAJOR shad kill on the Tennessee River.

To take advantage of the feeding frenzy, I'm thinking Senko,

Slug-Go and Pointer (MS American Shad).

Any suggestions?

8-)

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

RW, had to do some research about a shad kill. Never heard of it but now I know. Well the fish will be targeting the top water to 3-4 feet I would guess. So i would be using a senko, zara spook<<MY ADD and the pointer looks excellent, I would also be throwing some kind of flukie also!

[PlasticMan135]

I have heard people having good success catching fish with the Lake Forks Swimbait. I am thinking that if you fish it weightless, kind of like a fluke, you might be able to hook into a monster.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0049893122370a&navCount=1&podId=0049893&parentId=cat603337&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat20166-cat603337&catalogCode=UJ&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat603337&hasJS=true

Senko's, soft jerkbaits and jerkbaits will probably do well. I also think a spook will be successful.

Good luck and post some pictures.

[Tin]

You hit it on the head with those three, I would also try yo-yoing a lipless crank. Something tells me they never see it that presentation and you would see some vicious strikes.

[SuskyDude]

Maybe a weightless Super Fluke?

[bassnleo]

A shad die off is a normal in Spring in many local lakes here.

A few years ago I put in for my first bass fishing outing for the year, it was March 27th. As I motored toward the area I planned on fishing I noticed dead shad floating everywhere and many that were swimming in circles and floating down.

I had a lipless crank tied on, did have some success with that.

I tied on a jerkbait (X-Rap) and caught a bass on my first cast with it.

Ended the day catching over 25 bass on the jerkbait.

I would make a long cast, reel it down to it's running depth, then kill it. I would then work it with a jerk-jerk-long pause. All the bites came on the long pause (over 5 second pause).

Water temp was around 39-42 if I recall correctly....

[Dan:]

My first thought was a soft jerkbait (I would use a fluke, but I know you are partial to the slugos)

[SPAZ]

I was going to say the same thing, a fluke.

[justfishin]

Here are my four picks RW.

A Pearl White Salty Fluke with a Gremlin Bullshot --1/64 crimped on the line right at the nose. Killer for me here.

#5 and 7 Shad Rap

#10 and #12 Husky Jerk in Tenn Shad and a Down Deep Husky Jerk.

Senko in smoke/blue flake-----Just some thoughts.

Don't forget the ones floating down to the bottom. They do that down at the Conowingo Dam and we use a 1/4 white/white jig on the drop offs. It can be a killer as well. Good luck. I hope you bust the big one RW.

[Bronzefly]

1/8 oz. white fly with a hint of chartreuse tightlined on light spinning gear!!

[FHUAngler]

RW-

Interestingly enough, there was a huge shad kill on the Coosa River as well recently. Fished a tournament there this weekend. Low water temperatures and shad kill = fish do not bite. They are gorged on shad and its cold. So they don't eat. Only way I got them to bite was on a jig dragged really slow on the bottom or a shaky head/finesse worm worked the same way. And the warmer water you can find, the better. The fish are absolutely lethargic right now though, due to the water temperature being around 40. Just my 2 cents.

[roadwarrior]

We had a cold front move through late Friday night bringing with it

rain and high winds. I am very disappointed, but we had to cancel

the trip.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, it just didn't work out.

-Kent  a.k.a. roadwarrior

[Jig Man]

If you should get the opportunity, take along a few jigging spoons.  Most years there is a threadfin dieoff on Table Rock.  We used to catch bass during that time on the Hopkins Shorty 75.

[bronzewb22]

Any silver or white senko, fished with a ton of surface splashing always works for me. Also zoom super fluke weightless.

[SLO_ROLL]

When you here about it its too late.