I have been fishing the same lake now for the last couple of months and I have not been able to get the suspended fish to bite after trying every lure I was willing to fish with. All of these areas have clouds of shad with the bass and except for sporadic schooling on top I have been catching nothing. So today I found an area with suspended fish and completely void of any bait around them. Instant success. To test against the day, wind, location etc I went back to the shad cloud area and caught nothing. Then when I returned to the first area the shad had moved in and I now could not get bit with same lure presentation, etc. So a new summer pattern for me is suspended fish with no bait around them. Anyone else ever experience this?

Chunk a small spoon through the shad schools.

What lake you on now?

Whatever works! Also, try a very small suspending shad jerkbait and cover the entire depth of the water column where shad are, and you will get bit. Long pauses. The bass cannot resist a dying shad. They know that food is easy.