I have asked several well respected professional guides this question and have gotten several different answers. This is the question. When you see a ball of shad on your fishfinder, does it mean they are being pursued by predator fish and have gathered together as for safety in numbers and to decrease thier odds of being singled out, or do the shad elongate and spread out when they are under attack by predatory fish. It seems that I watched a program a while back on a major science channel, and it was the killer whales against the sardines, and the sardines would ball up when the whales were hunting them, the whales would go into the school and wreak havok, eat alot of them, they would spread out, but immediately ball up again while the killer whales were, : herding them ". any comments appreciated. thanks .

Welcome to the TFF Leanin Post. Good question, I have always thought they spread out when being fed on by predators but I may be wrong. When Sand bass push them to the top its usually one concentrated area thats popping so you may be right about balling up.

From what I've seen, if you see a ball of shad, best bet is the predatory fish are picking at the shad. If and when they drive into them, they disperse and may show up in fuzzy groups. If they are not being preyed on, they are generally in little groups or strings.

I remember seeing somewhere that when the shad is bunched up in a ball they are not being preyed on ans when they are elongated they are.

As I understand it shad balled up near the bottom are not generally being chased. Shad balled up on the top, or in smaller balls near the top are being fed upon. If they are spread out or with jaged edges they defenatly are being fed on. Really big balls of bait fish are usually not being fed on. At least thats how I read my FF. This come from experiance too. I have fished those really big balls of bait and caught nada. It always seens that the small ones(multiple in one area, near the top or jagged ones) are the ones I catch fish from.

Tiny (catfish expert) says the same thing about the ball and the scattered effect. If balled, no redators. If scattered, there's predators feeding on them.

If you are marking bait, you should be able to see whether there
are any larger fish in the area or not. If you can't, you
need better electronics. BOAT ( Break Out Another Thousand )

MO