The fishing has been a lot tougher on this lake for me than last year. Just a theory but I think I might have run into a reason why. This pics were taken in almost the same spot. I never ran into shad this thick last year except only a rare occasion. As you can see I�m in 46-48 ft of water. There was many times the sonar was tricked into 19-20 ft of water because of the amount of bait. I�m thinking the bigger fish are just gorging themselves on this never ending amount of food and not paying much attention to my artificials. I did manage to catch one good hybrid on the day when I got away from all the bait being so concentrated. I caught some under hybrids and some sandies and an 8 lb catfish on the day as well.

I agree. The cold water may have taken a few of them but it seems that there are more than enough to go around. Every lake I fish seems to have an over abundance of shad. Why would they bite your lure when it is easier to eat a shad.

I agree. I look for fish where there are not a lot of shad. That's what I'm finding on deep structures at CC - fish there but not a lot of shad.

I wonder the same thing for my lake. I am finding several square acres of bait solid thick from 28 feet deep to 42 feet. How can artificials or even shad on a hook compete? I'm not sure of the answer

Water temps are almost 10� Colder right now than they were this time last year.

Makes a huge difference in how they bite this time of year.

Agree with the water temp remark. We are experiencing a cold winter and it�s been tough. Tons of shad are a sign of a healthy lake though so it�s kind of a blessing in disguise. On Lew check out some of the major creek channels just north of where you took that screen shot. Also there is a good one running from the ENE area of twin trees that has traditionally not been chocked with bait fish. I prefer those deep creeks over flat and open water this time of year. Good luck and hope it gets better for you

Here lately, all of our fish have been coming over main lake channels, over the top of VERY large schools of shad. The difference is the shad schools in your pictures are tightly bunched together, whereas a school that's being actively fed will be broken up and more thin.

When we find a school of shad with fish in it, we are spot-locking the boat, and then beating on the bow until those big schools of bait turn into red eyebrows (fish) on our sonar. At that point, we are dropping down Thump Buddies rigged on 1/4 ounce heads to the depth where we see the fish, and holding the jig dead still for 10-15 seconds.

If we stop over a school of shad and I don't see fish stacking up on my graph within 7-10 minutes of beating, we move further down the lake. Right now, I'm fishing water that's 42-46ft deep, and the fish are suspending in 25-32 ft (typically 8-10 turns off the bottom).

Here lately, this pattern has been yielding 30-40 whites an hour with a couple random hybrids thrown in the mix.


I hope this helps!

Thanks Laner. I didn�t fish that area because I didn�t see anything but bait. I really try and avoid catching catfish and sandies when possible. Last year I was catching 5+ lb hybrids every time I went out. This year the big ones have just been tougher to find.

Bassthumb, I�m heading back out in about an hour. I�ll try those channels. Seems like a good place to try with the south wind today.

When I see large concentration of shad like that I tend to stay away for that reason, but the fish are there just not paying any attention to your lure what's so ever.

That sounds like a pretty successful day on Lewisville the way the fish have been acting the last couple weeks. Good job!

Thx for the hints, lit them up over an hour and half. We�re a bit deeper than your report, but tons of fun. Two catches in this short video.

https://youtu.be/yzurYThMT4M