had my buddy Ron and his wife out this weekend. Took a break from the crappie fishing to catch some Shad and let him have some fun with the stripers. He caught 4 with one too small to keep and lost a somewhat bigger one when the line broke. All these are in the 20 inch range which has been the primary size I've been catching. He kept one sandbass of the numerous ones he caught.



I gotta get a shad tank. Doesn't look like lure fishing will be productive this year and we have gobs of shad.

Are you fishing the river? Or the lake?

I was fishing the Lake in Neely Slough by the dam. I have a lake house there, but I think any area south of South D & D launch is fine. I was crappie Fishing up at Bluff Creek and marked lots of fish.

What I've noticed is that if there's shad schools stripers will be nearby in deeper water. The shad will be in the shallow coves and creeks spawning and being harassed by small LM Bass. Just a little out from there you'll get sand bass but they are triggering on micro fry. You almost need to use a dry fly or something to catch them. Even my small crappie jigs are almost too big for them. Most of the creeks have massive schools of recently hatched fry. I noticed in one cove in Neely Slough that the fry were so numerous that they looked like flotsam that had washed into the lake. We are getting a massive spawn of something. Probably carp and gar judging by how many are in the shallows.

thats a great report

The fry are most likely sand bass or thread fins.Sand Bass just finished up and thread fins are in the process.Thread fins can be seen running the banks.

Nice fish. Good job.