Caught these bout a month ago at Ray Hubbard.

Those would be gizzard shad.

That's what you call BAIT! That's what the big ones eat.

Did they taste good?

I love that color on a crank!

I'd hate to smell the kitchen those get fried up in.

Hey TexasCatfishCowboy, what did you catch those on?

I was bank fishing and i used a cast net. Don't know what they tasted like because when I was guttin em up and i looked at their meat it was covered in nasty black stuff that looked like mud embedded in their meat.
They werent spoiled because I had them Iced up in a cooler.

Yall are killin' me here.....

Those gizzard shad are some good sized ones, but hardly fit to eat. They pretty much eat mud and detritus from the bottom which they grind up with a gizzard just like one a chicken has, hence the name.

I can only guess at how they'd smell in the house when being fried up....whooooweee, I know it'd be a lot worser than when I boil crabs.

They make good cut bait and when the white bass are running extracting and using the gizzards themselves for bait works very well.

Gizzard shad are an important forage species for bass and other large predatory fish (stripers, blue cat, ops, etc.)as they convert the little utilized resource of bottom detritus (organic material) directly into fish flesh. Most of our larger reservoirs actually have too many of them and not enough predatory species to eat them.

Be carefull. If those had been game fish caught in a cast net and kept, you could get into some trouble with the game warden.

Man I wish I had about 200 of them........

So u catch fish in a cast net that u have no clue what they are but u throw them on a stringer and then clean them ?? not too smart there.....gonna get yoself into alot of trouble like that- not only a ticket but sometimes the can confiscate all your gear too (and maybe even a strip search?)

And how can u be a Catfish Cowboy if u don't recognize the #1 best catfish bait?

At least you can throw a cast net. I've had one for 4 years and still can't get it right.
Go the the TPWD website and look at their fish I.D. pics. Get a copy of the rules and regulations and learn the size and possession limits on different species. And despite the ribbing, keep asking questions on this forum, there are a lot of good people on here with good information. Tight lines!

I have fried up threadfin shad before caught from a cast net.

Pretty good food

I've had fried silver sides (ghost) minnows. I know in Japan they eat "fathead minnow stew." A Japanese friend came to visit and we went out for crawfish. Now as far as I'm concerned the Japanese eat more fish bait than anybody I know of, but he was horrified at the thought of eating crawfish. I asked him, "Ain't yall got crawfish in Japan? He said they did, but would NEVER consider eating them.

When I was there in Japan visiting a fish farm, they had a bunch of dojo loaches (common aquarium fish kinda like a small eel)in a bucket. "Bait?" I queried, "No, dinner," was the answer. Go figure.

If I do not know what fish I have and what the rules are, I can't toss it back fast enough. Been there, done that, got busted, fined and lectured by the judge. Won't happen again....

I'm aware of the castnet laws and fishing laws and I knew that it wasn't a gamefish which is why I took them home.
I'm 16 and am barely starting to really actively get into fishing. Thanks for everyones help and cautions.

Don't listen to those guys, here's a shad recipe:
1
Preheat oven to 325 f .
2
Rub olive oil over one side of plank.
3
Salt and pepper the plank.
4
Rub olive oil on both sides of fish.
5
Salt and pepper both sides of fish.
6
Place fish on seasoned plank.
7
Place in oven and baked for 30 minutes.
8
Remove from oven.
9
Throw shad in trash and eat the plank

Hang in there. Fishing is a great hobby. Hang around here on the forum and you will pick up a lot of great information, you just have to sort it out of the good natured
joking around.

Oh yeah, forgot to say:

"Welcome to the forum!"

It looks like TCC did many of us a favor. Those of us who don't normally use live bait now know what a Gizzard Shad looks like.

I've been fishing fresh water for sixty years and, to my knowledge, I have never seen one.

Thanks TCC.

Roadtrip. If you are gunna be in the midcities dfw area ever, message me, ill teach you to throw a cast net in 10 minutes.

where'd the pic go?

I'll do that. Thanks

Yessir. No problem.

Lmoa.. thats great