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Winter Shad on Lewisville #11296909 12/22/15 04:19 AM
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,077
Flipside Outdoors Offline OP
Extreme Angler
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Extreme Angler
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,077
I went out to Lewisville on Saturday and damn near wore my arm out throwing the net for 3 hours. I have read Chad Ferguson's blog and have bought a new 5/8in 7ft net to try to get the deep water shad. My question is... there's a lot of deep water, where do I start? I launched at little elm and drove up and down the coves throwing my net and I guess after reading the blog that I find shad by just dumb luck in the summer. I have no idea where to look in the winter.

P.S.
The wind was killer last weekend. Do you guys attempt to go through the middle of the lake when its so windy? We got beat to hell and soaked and gave up.


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Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: Flipside Outdoors] #11297042 12/22/15 12:17 PM
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 13,072
tgravley aka lewisvillecatfish Offline
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It hasn't got cold enough yet for the shad to congregate deep yet. That is also a bit to big of a mesh for Lewisville right now. When it's stretched out sinking, the mesh is an 1 1/4 wide letting the shad swim thru. Your electronics will show you the bait.

Last edited by tgravley aka lewisvillecatfish; 12/22/15 12:53 PM.

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Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: Flipside Outdoors] #11297308 12/22/15 02:53 PM
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 238
Waco Crappie Offline
Outdoorsman
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Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 238
What kind of depth finder are you using? What I have learned is that its better to spend the first 20 min searching for shad using your depth finder. If the screen is clear then move on and dont throw your net. At lake Waco we have an aerator unit or bubbles near the damn. There is always shad there, not use if your lake has anything like that. Also follow the wind, if the wind is blowing from the south search the north part of the lake.

When using your depth finder I personally think its easier to find shad using side imaging. This can be tricky in big waves which is why I try to catch my shad early in the morning before the wind picks up. If you see a cloud on your side imaging that you cant distinguish the pixels then that is shad. I will try to post some of me images.

Also, I probably have about the same net as you. Its an old salt series with heavy weights. tgreaveley is right the smaller shad will swim through or get caught halfway through the net which is a pain but I usually target gizzard shad so this doesnt bother me to lose the small shad.


Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: Flipside Outdoors] #11297380 12/22/15 03:25 PM
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 238
Waco Crappie Offline
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Posts: 238
Here is the only photo I had of some shad on my photobucket. It isn't the best but it will work. Ill explain alittle about the photo incase you arent as familiar with side imaging.

You can see the 2 circles I highlighted. The boat drove right over this shad ball with the main portion of shad being on the left side of the boat. It is a big group because there is some to the right also but they are packed tight. You can also see what appears to be some game fish surrounding the bait ball keeping them tight. Not sure about that but its my opinion. So what you do is when you see this have a marking float in your hand ready to throw out when you are trolling scanning for shad. When you see this throw the marking float behind the boat and in the direction of the main portion of shad. So in this case I would have thrown the float to the left side of the boat and probably about 10 yards back as that is how far I usually see the delay from my depth finder to an object. If you look closely at the photo you can see a car tire at the bottom left side of the screen. This gives you an idea of how big the shad ball is and how tight they are. Once you have your float in the water use your trolling motor to got back and start throwing around the float. I usually throw 5-6 times and then move on if I havent gotten anything. If the shad have moved you'll just waste time. If you have a depth finder on your trolling motor this helps to identify the ball again but sometimes that is too time consuming to try and locate them again. Just start throwing around the marker since you already know they were there once. Once you get this down you can locate bigger balls of shad and find out where they are staying. If you do those often enough you can drive straight to where they usually are and start your scan there. Hope this helps.



Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: Flipside Outdoors] #11304489 12/26/15 06:27 PM
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 5,923
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BrianTx01 Offline
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Shad was pretty tough when I went there the other day.


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Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: BrianTx01] #11304587 12/26/15 07:29 PM
Joined: Jan 2010
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I
Iron Will Offline
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Joined: Jan 2010
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Shad were boiling in the creeks for the past couple of days...


Re: Winter Shad on Lewisville [Re: Flipside Outdoors] #11304679 12/26/15 08:35 PM
Joined: Dec 2012
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44 Diesel Offline
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Just wait till after new years, the will be deep with this week long cold weather, they will be easy pickens

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