Denise is my mean ole spell checker! That's who. Sorry for calling you a girl, Dennis.

that 10lb fluoro sounds like fun

Here is an example this morning of what I said above. These fish were on the high spot of Enchanted Isle Ridge at Cedar Creek Lake. I threw a #4 Mepps at them 6 times and got one little bump. Switched to #2 rig and started catching fish 2 out of every 3 casts. Before I quit I ended up with a limit of whites, 2 legal hybrids, a short hybrid and a nice cat. I left with them still biting.

Dennis, Great info...Might just help me figure out how to catch some. I wonder if they set up shallower because of the thermocline, or just bait location?

Yeah it looks like Athens had a pretty good shad spawn last week. The fish are already so full of shad it can be hard to get them to bite artificial. This technique might be the ticket for LM and whites out there.

If the threadfin shad fry are 3/4 to 1", what date was the spawn?
What is the growth rate of threadfin shad,

Maybe a wildlife biologist can answer that.

Great info Dennis! The Mepps is whacking them on RC

This year on Richland Chambers the shad spawn was roughly late March - late April and they hatched late June, they're "mature" by the following Spring and rarely live past 3 years of age.

Picked up a #2 mepps on Friday afternoon - hit Lavon with a new canoe Saturday morning. Ended up working the crappie bushes for a while (probably longer than I should have), caught about a dozen crappie dinks before giving up, then put on my mepps - caught my first keeper sand bass with it right after. Really regret not spending more time with the mepps (as when I switched over to it, was around 10AM and the morning bite started to cool down a bit).

Looking forward to using this around this time of year! Playing around with different retrievals and depths. Thanks for the tips sir!

The same phenomena happens on Lake Livingston to a marked degree. Having read your blog on fishing the bridges there long ago I have suggested this method to many folks and gave em the blog.
They have all caught much more fish during the new shad hatch time of year when than they used to. Some stick with it and some go back to trolling.
I will go back home before I go trolling, but this is their time of year to shine on those white bass suspended at 15' any where there are shad this time of year. I see folks catching them trolling in the middle of nowhere catching white bass, they just know to catch them there from experience over the years. It's August, let's go catch some white bass at so and so spot.
Interestingly the fish do it( suspend at 15' in big schools) even if there is no thermocline, like this year when ever this time of year comes around. Maybe button shad swim at that depth?
I suppose the deeper water may not cross the threshold to an O2 barrier, but still have less saturated O2 than the water above the 15' when it's temp is 90 degrees plus.
So white bass are still hanging on deep water humps, but they are finicky to get to bite.
I think it's a combination of not enough O2 to feed hard and exert energy,( they often race to the top where there is more O2 this time of year when hooked) and they feed on tiny button shad almost exclusively when they are present. It seems all the game fish love a candy shad.
I appreciate the fact you noted that they swim slower than older shad, which explains why teaser flies above the slab do the work well this time of year, They slow the decent well and often because they mimic the tiny shad in size they catch the biggest white bass usually.
thanks for sharing the great fishing tip!

I used to always dread summer patterns on CC because I knew I'd have to drag that Hell Pet for miles.

Thanks Dennis, for the great post.

Nice report sir!

An anecdote on the effect line type and/or size can have using my #2 rig: I was out yesterday and had two rods rigged with #2 rig. After I located fish at Key Ranch Drop-off, I tried both rigs and discovered they would bite one rig and not the other. I kept switching back and forth to make sure the pattern repeated and it did. Upon close examination of my rigs, the one that was catching fish had 10 lb fluorocarbon line - Berkeley Vision yellow tint to be exact. The one that was not getting bit had a slightly larger line diameter, and I'm not sure if it was fluorocarbon or not. It could be Berkeley's Transoptic or 12 lb test line - not sure which or maybe even some older, other line I had put on longer ago.

This isn't the 1st time I have seen this. Once fishing for white bass with #2's with my wife on Lake Livingston, she was out-catching me 2 to 1. When I checked and compared our rigs, her line diameter was noticeably smaller than mine. So, be aware that with this rig with the small shad in shallower water moving the bait slower, line diameter matters.

Another minor tip, you can further reduce the bait profile to better match the hatch by removing the red piece of plastic on the hook shank.

I'm buying stock in Berkley!

Thanks for the information. Where do you buy your lures?