Any help with finding gizzard shad on Ray Roberts.
Got a new deep water cast net this year and have catching everything but gizzard shad.
I have been marking bait in 32 to 40 ft of water. I can fill a buckets in 1 or 2 throws with threadfin, and drum, [censored].
the other day i finally caught 2 about 8" long. Used that for bait and got a 26 lb and 23 lb.
I am new to this catfishing but from following the guys i here i see the key is bait.
Chris and Tim you sure make it look easy.

I can't help you, but I'm all ears!

I am heading to RayBob for 10 days of fishing in our RV in 3 weeks. I have never had much luck on that lake, bait or fish.

Candyman, I don't know the first thing about Ray Bob, but I can tell you that I have been struggling to catch good size gizzards too. The reason I think is the millions of little threads that always seem to be above them in the water column. I think the little threads spook when the net comes down and that drives all the gizzards away too. Finding the gizzards away from the threadfin is the key I think but it has been eluding me the last few times out. I am curious what this cold snap is going to do. Will there be a shad kill? Or will it just drive them all to pile up tighter? Time will tell... I gotta think the surface temps are going to be into the upper 30s after this...

Candy Man, here is a great video on this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD5blhNkeQY

Being fairly new to this, I struggle a bit myself. I've found that on my graph, what looks like large clouds or balls of bait tend to be smaller threadfins. I'm sure El Gato Azul or Catfish Tim will chime in here and give you better info.

Don't throw back that drum, or carp if you snag them. Those are excellent cut bait for Catfish, often times better than shad. Just have to use a chainsaw to cut up the drum ....