Below Whitney, later this week,

Any advice where to cast my throw net, looking for large shad ?

Do shad die off in the winter in the rivers?

The gizzard shad are much more cold tolerant than threadfins. They are there, but it does take some effort to locate and catch them. This is one that got mangled last week while fishing on the river. Unfortunately, the few shad I was able to catch were too large I'm afraid. This one was 14" or so. The few I found were in about 5' of water out of the main current over a muddy bottom. Hope that helps Steven.

Nice thing about big shad is you can cut them down to match the bait size the cats are wanting. I've been doing well on strips about 1x6" cut from shad fillets.

boy. the poor life of a shad must stink

That hook is way too small for that shad.Try a bigger hook and youll have a better hookup ratio.

Also 18 inches and under are the right size,as large striper are back from the grave.Fish up to 20 lbs are catchable for those who are in the know.

I loked again at that bait...it does look like a small striper beat on it for a while.A big fish would have scaled it alot worse.

Where do you get your shad at 16/254?

Out of the river im fishing mostly.

Perfect

Good to know

Good luck. I fish below Whitney most weekends and shad are hard to find. Please share if you have any luck finding them.

try hitting up the feeder creeks. they will be shallow shallow shallow if it is cold. a little deeper if it is not very cold. you may not find the big 9" plus cutters if it is warm but threadfins catch fish too.

This was below Whitney. It aint easy though, throwing a 7' heavy net keeping my balance while standing in my yak. I was using a pair of 7/0 hooks rigged about 7" apart. I've caught stripers 20# out of the upper Brazos , but on gizzards a bit smaller. I really didn't think this one would get bit, but one had a go at him. I don't think it was a small striper either!

Think all you want,that hook isn't even close to being big enough.

Yeah, your right about the hook. I left the 10/o in my other box. I wasn't planning on using shad this large!

i use to catch big gizzard shad off the catwalk, you know the long concrete wall directly below the dam. Your not suppossed to be there. but wth, i did it anyhow. I've caught some real nice one's. I dont recall what time of year it was tho. And that hook was way too small for a chance of hook up. Not being a smarta$$ but you'll have better luck of a hook up with a larger hook

You shouldnt tell me things like that! I can see my butt getting hauled off by the Brazos River Authority and the Game Warden all while crying about just wanting some live bait!

Learn to throw your net sitting down in your yak ,it makes it a lot easier.
Ron

that would probably be the best option

Couldn't find any shad and man was today windy.

The stretch below Whitmey is pretty 'carp stirred' dingy, the color probably not helped from the lack of any generating's clearer water.

Fish bit, but as it's January, the bite was slow.
We shouldda tried more with noisy cranks and big blade spinners. But we didn't.

Had a blast fishing with my brother, who is one funny mf'er, most the day.