Being as though there is no place on the west side of the metroplex, that sells either fresh (not frozen) and definitely no live shad, anywhere that I've seen. Do ya'll think there would be enough business, to make it worth selling live and fresh shad? I'm going to build a big home bait tank anyway, no matter what. But, I've seen that it doesn't cost much to get a license and setup to sell bait. What are your guys thoughts?

There is a guy that sells fresh Shad on Tawakoni all the time.

Lots of new catfisherman these days and most of em can’t get bait this time of year. You can probably sell some to those guys or the shore fisherman. I know a ton of catfisherman and we all catch our own bait the morning we fish.

There are several places on the East side of the metroplex that do. But nobody, on the West side. And there are days that I want to bank fish, that's one of the reasons why I'm building a home bait tank.

This has been debated since before the dinosaurs were extinct......my .02 is there isn't a market because the price would be fluctuating meaning the person investing the time in catching them would expect more for them when he/she invested more time to catch them and during those same times demand is likely down and the people that realize the true value(all the effort that went into catching them) caught their own and the people who don't realize the value won't be a buyer(they just won't fish that day/week).

Furthermore, the only way you could sway any diehards would be consistency of the product....if they can't get them 100% of the time they want them then they will continue catching their own. The commitment and the effort ends up not being worth the reward.

One way to find out.....go give it a try.

Well, if nothing else, I will have a continuous supply for my own use. I just drove 2.5 hours round trip to a place that advertises "fresh shad" only to find shad barely larger than a large minnow, sitting out in bags (relatively cold), not on ice, discolored, in bags full of brown juices. While the pictures on their FB page show coolers full of large freshly caught shad on ice. They had obviously been there for days. That is not by any stretch of the imagination, "FRESH". If I do this, mine will be live, and the ones that die, will immediately be put on ice, and tossed after 24 hrs. I may even take a few bags and vacuum seal and freeze them, just in case anybody would want any frozen. Although, I can't imagine anyone would WANT to use frozen shad. But, I'll keep a few bags as an option.

I definitely won't have an issue, constantly having hundreds of live shad swimming around, just waiting to be inhaled by a catfish. But, if people want live or fresh shad, I'd certainly sell it to them.

You can sell them. Seems to be an easy way to make some money if you have the time.

I tryed to keep minnows alive in a 50 gal. stock tank. I had pumps filters and the works . That turned into more work then it was worth.
Now I'm raising red worms in that same tank and they are doing good with a lot less work.

As a guy who mostly fishes from the bank, I would certainly appreciate a place to buy gizzard shad in the winter.

Built my first prototype tank this weekend. It's actually going to be a bluegill tank.110 gallons. Think I'm going to invest in one of those 275 or 330 gallon IBC totes for the shad, if the bluegill tank works well.

I would buy gizzards. I am sure you could sell it on Facebook. Always people looking for shad there.

Make sure you have the proper license/permit to sell Shad/ Minnows.

Yes sir, I was amazed at how cheap it was.

I went around the shad problem with bluegills. There are several ponds around I can catch more than I need for bait and they are way easier to keep for a couple of days than shad.

I do that too currently. But, would like to have both.