That's a good tip thanks!!

Sadly I've not been missing bites...Can't miss what you've not had BUT good news is, I'm not quitting till I catch these suckas

These guys have a learning curve and it really depends on everything from water temperature, available shad concentration. They are eating machines and in most lake around us in the winter it's either threadfinn or gizzards In the winter 90 percent are in 10 percent of the lake. I don't waste time on spots because if I don't mark fish I certainly don't fish. The only way to get more proficient is getting out there every chance. You also need to know we all get skunked when chasing trophy blues. Don't give up and yes even getting fresh shad in the winter is something you must love and enjoy. Once you find the bait you just found the fish. One of my best days ever was a trip to Lavon in my kayak and we wore them out biggest one in my kayak 30'

boss status awesome blue

I would error on the side of using larger hooks. Especially if you're going after large Blues. I'm still searching for mobyblue but I've been fortunate to witness a few large fish caught and there is simply no mistake when a big blue takes your bait...they rarely... "miss it". The fish you are missing are probably much smaller fish or channel cats. Keep it going...they're coming.

In this lifestyle you have to reward yourself when you you go out use your sonar to locate a school of shad and you throw your net a couple of times and fill up a baggy you will be soo happy

I caught 3 and I was stoked! lol

This time of year depending on the particular lake you are on has a lot to do with where to locate a sure thing when it comes to shad. I hate to fish on grapevine but it's excellent for shad. If you are truly serious about these blues in the winter some lakes are hell to get bait. I have a deep winter net I throw but it is optimum at 20 ft of water and I always let it go to the bottom it seems to work much better. I will give what I do. When I am getting ready to go fish for in any lake that is known to be a pain to get them there I go out the day before on grapevine and fill a couple of bags full and keep them on ice they keep excellent for about 24 hours I don't freeze them. Then you will be ready to fish the next day you can spend much more productive time fishing and locating the blues.

One of these days your going to get in a winter school of and it's unbelievable how fast you catch them and they will eat you out of house and home ...,lol

Oh yeah thanks Jim! I have a spot on Lewisville I know I can get shad.

Its only 5-6 Feet deep though about half way up a creek. Never caught a fish there though. I was thinking I might have to roadrunner this. Launch the boat there to just get shad, then load it again to go to the fishing spot.

Got a good tip on a spot that there are some big blue right now on Lville....but its main lake and the wind was howling out of the S/SW I tried to get out there in my Bass Buster but it was way too sketchy. Was not safe at all, had to abort before I got to fish the spot.

I used to fish about a mile from the ramp in my 14 kayak but due to being so low slung it extremely stable I never missed a winter blue trip in it because wind or waves The pro angler 14 was awesome. My son was in it with me and we two rods running at the same, meaning we had two fish on at the same. I have a bass buster at my house and a large v I have taken the buster in main lake at lake fork with ten mph and wore the channel catfish out

I am with you on the wind problems. The problem with these fish are the plankton blows down wind so the shad go there to eat and the catfish follow the food chain . The best places like deep water point s on the upwind side don't offer any protection. So the wind is your friend no wind can cause these fish not to feed heavy.

I'm not one of them but we have some kick 3670 on this forum
Winter time bankers that have caught a lot bigger blues than I have and do well quite regularly. Most of them don't even want to hassle with a boat

x2