I have a question for those of you who uses shad as their bait. Well, I have recently started using shad and it takes me about an hour or two to actually locate a specific location. My questions are:

1. What type of net should I use?
2. Is there a pattern that I need to follow?
3. Are boat ramps good?
4. Fillet or cut in half?
5. Should I use the head only?
6. How often should I change my shad bait?
7. What type of hooks are most preferred?
8. Scales or no scales?
9. Do I need chum or stink bait to use as an attractant?
10. Do I need a line leader and if yes then how long should it be?
11. What is the most preferred rig used?

1) Mono net
2) Definitely, fish change locations and so should you. wind is your friend
3) for catching bait, ramps are good, especially early before boat traffic arrives and the old, never used ones are probably better. again, wind is your friend
4) depends. I use whole unless the shad is way too big for my target species. Normally anything under 4" I leave whole. Larger I cut, unless I'm specifically targeting large blues then bigger is better
5) Maybe others have found differently but I use the whole bait
6) If no bites, I will change bait every 30 min or so, but then again, that's probably because I have moved to another location and always like to start with fresh bait.
7) Circle hooks for me, but kayle style work too
8) Leave the scales on, too small to be an issue, but I do make sure my hook point does not have a scale stuck to the point
9) Depends. Chumming works great for channel cats but if targeting blues, I don't usually bother with it. Can't hurt I guess just don't over-chum or the fish will get full on that and avoid your baits
10) Depends on your rig set up. Normally some sort of leader, whether you're drifting with a c-rig, santee cooper rig or fishing windy points. I normally go with about 3 ft.

I'm sure others will chime in with their advice and have some different thoughts but things change when fishing so don't get too set on one thing or another unless it's working at that time.

When searching for shad, look along the banks for the white birds feeding on them!!

Trust you electronics to find shad. I cut my shad unless they are small and I still cut belly open. Like already mentioned follow wind. I like Santee Cooper rig and I use different length leaders until I find what they want. Circle hooks. I don't knock scales off, shad they normally eat still have scales.

+1

I will do that

Get u a good 7 ft net. U can cover a lot of water in one cast, more important than location to me.

Also new to using cast net...follow the advice here....avoid "EZ throw" style net and learn to throw the 6-7 footer. Go out in the back yard and practice, practice, practice ...... Several videos on YouTube to show you how to throw. Good luck! It is pretty cool the first time you throw the net right and drag back 30-40 shad!

By 7' he means a 7' radius...which is the largest net you can throw in texas legally. If you learn to throw it correctly and learn to find the shad...you can literally catch 100 shad in one throw...

it helped me to start with a 4ft then move to a 6ft.

net that is.

theres a lot of men who claim to have 6's that really have 4's

I started with the 4' too!! And as I learned eh that I went bigger. Smaller one are cheaper to buy specially when learning where no to throw us you will get hung up!!

Make sure to get a least 1# of lead per a radius foot. It will open more easily and sink faster....which will allow you to catch more shad.