Need a little help when you have bait fish braking top of water. I know there is fish chasing them what do you do to catch them. I have been using square cranks, flukes etc. just no luck.

i have good luck on spooks and square bills

I throw smaller tackle to match the bait they're chasing...

Try a small spoon

Small spinner bait works for me

Wacky rig finesse worm. Resembles a stunned shad from the attack your witnessing.

The more aggressive fish will be right up on the bank in 1 ft. of water. Best bait for me are 3/8 oz. big Beetle Spin with small swim shad and T-Rig Lizard. On the Lizard; throw it up there and swim it back slowly. They seem to follow it a ways then strike it.

This time of year shad are abundant and the bass are so keyed in that it can be hard to trick them. I have the best luck with flukes, senkoes, squarebills and a Yellow Magic.

Good luck!

Thanks I will try some of the things y'all have told me next time out

Early in the fall sometimes the bass are little slow following the shad. Just because ur seeing shad on top does not mean the bass have followed them. Look for balls of shad anything over 1" long is a good sign. What you are seeing on top is probably very small shad flicking around give a KVD 1.0 crank a try its supper small

I have been see bass attack the shad and they are over 1" long

there are tons of bait on all the lakes recently, which can make it a little tough. why should they try for a bait when there is an abundant amount. sometimes buckle down and slow fishing is sometimes key to get that one good bite, jig, sinko.

Trap

Try dead sticking a fluke on the bottom or suspended. It will be slow fishing and takes patience. But just picture that fluke slowing sinking down making an easy meal.

Chatter bait, Trap, Squarebill

Rooster Tail or other small spinner---I have also had luck with the smallest A-Rig you can find baited with small curl-tail grubs.

Many times what is chasing the shad is NOT bass. Bluegill, Crappie, Sand and white bass, Yellow bass, all dine of schools of shad. If you are sure it is bass, be systematic in your approach to finding out that they are hitting. Start by matching the hatch in size and color, if that doesn't work, try going smaller matching color, if that doesn't work go larger matching color, if that doesn't work go to something completely opposite of the forage fish. I have caught schoolies throwing a Watermelon Candy Super Fluke into schooling bass that were feeding on shad about an 1" long. What I was throwing was no where close to what they were eating, but they hit it.