You are correct! A commonplace saltwater tactic that most freshwater fishermen overlook.

Works awesome with small live shad over a brush pile full of finicky crappie as well. They light up!

It's like that. Some days it's a one cast deal and you have all the shad you can use. because I often go out in the middle of the day this time of year, I can spend a couple hours catching shad. They tend to scatter in the day and go a little deeper. If you are going out in the evening to catch shad they should be in the same place unless the local fish and birds have eaten most of them. This can happen and I see it often at Possum Kingdom when shad are plentiful in Neely Slough the sides of the bank will be heavily populated with snowy egrets, cormorants and Blue Herons. These birds can wipe out entire schools fast, especially in clear water.

Fitec GS1500 model 13070 7ft radius 5/16 mesh. this is the answer to hanging the baits in the net. you will hang a few very small baits in this 5/16 mesh but not the ones that you could use for striper . this made all the difference in my bait catching. It's heavy and bulky and hard to throw but I've been catching bait in 10-25 ft of water with no problem. it's expensive but worth it to me , call fitec direct to order it . it doesnt show up on the online store.

In the winter the shad will normally be deeper early and then as the sun warms up the water i have found them in 1' of water. One winter a buddy was sitting in my boat middle of the day. We were taking a shore break and getting ready to head back out in the afternoon. He told me that there were all these minnows swimming under the boat. He was from Indiana so he did not know shad. I said "you idiot that is the bait we have been looking for and they are shad". Cold winter day and when the sunlight heated up the water the threadfins headed to shallow water.