This time of the year are the shallow in the same areas as summer or is their pattern different due to the spawn? Creeks, boat ramps, etc? Have they spawned yet or did they at the same time as the white bass and hybrids? I fished today but didn’t see any shad. I didn’t look real hard as I got a late start but didn’t see any shad balls on the graph.

Lots of times this time of year you can find all the Shad you want in creeks and backs of coves that warm faster than the main lake. No Shad have not spawned. I believe they spawn in early to mid June along rocky banks and shallow cover.

That’s where we found them today on RC. Shallow calm coves where the water temp was a bit warmer then the main lake.

Thanks for the help. I’m glad I asked as I was looking deep and not shallow.

The shad are spawning big time on windy point early in the morning right now. You can kick them on shore at times, no net needed

Creeks, creeks with retaining walls or rock lined walls are a sure bet.

All based on water temp. Some lakes ie... east Texas water temps are warmer than north Texas and west texas. PK surface temps have dropped 6 degrees from a week ago . Add extremely low pressure to the mix, and SE winds fish are stuck to the bottom .

Early to mid May is when I notice the biggest spawns. Look for egrets and other birds on the shore following the shad.

I had shad spawning on my retaining wall yesterday, Water temp as 65 deg .
MO

Personally, I haven't seen any big schools on the sonar. A few small pods here and there. Right now I've been catching 1 or 2 at a time off the docks, and boat ramps, all decent size 6 inches, plus. So, I usually go catch bait the night before, and pad what I got with some bluegill from my home bait tank.

All that put PK fish in a bad mood.
PK threadfins are not on the bank yet. Maybe this week or next. We went from catching fish on Redfins back to 30 ft of water.

What boat are you fishing. In G?

They were starting to do their thing on Ray Hubbard Sunday morning.

I had same experience on PK. I could not find the bait and only a few fish deep. I was on deep end of the lake and surface temp was showing 60-61. Been a weird year so far...

Join the club Jackwagon. I threw the net last week for 4 hours and only caught 8 shad, all were 7-8 inches long. Way too big for most fish. I have no idea where the smaller shad are. Did see some big schools in deep water but I prefer to catch shad in 10-15 feet and have not had much luck in 50 feet. Have not found sand bass in the lower end of the lake this year. All I've been catching are LM Bass.

Found shad on Buchanan at mouth of river in 1-2' of water. Very unusual for this time of year.