How long is fresh shad good? I'm catching them in the morning before work a couple of days before fishing. They go into the freezer with an hour of catching. I have been using them within 48 hours. How long have you found they last before the effectiveness degrades?

Also, a technique to prevent freezer burn is to freeze in water. Will freezing in water preserve the fish longer?

My findings personally over the last few years of trying to learn this BlueCat game, along with some things people have told me - trying to help me...

Frozen shad are a lot like a popsicle. OK until they melt... Pretty sure it was Mr. Jackie Kennedy that told me that. Has proven very true.

With that said, the bigger the shad, the better they will freeze and still work some. Seems the heads are better than the rest after frozen - again, just my opinion.

FRESH shad - caught and put on ice, will always out catch frozen shad. I learned this the hard way a few years ago. Fishing pretty much side by side, same basic rigs, etc. with another boat, and they were out catching me 5 to 1 at least. I had frozen and they had fresh. I caught fresh the next day, and fished the same waters, and caught fish... But - frozen shad are better than no shad...

Good luck!

Ken

The larger shad can be kept on ice for a couple-3 days But you need to keep them packed in ice, not ice water. If you are fishing within 48 hours of catching your bait, throw them on ice in a good cooler and leave the drain plug open to release the water as things melt.

I curious here, your going out and obviously find and catch the shad, jimo huge deal right there. Why not just get the shad early the morning of going and use live bait, or ice down then? Now again jimo here, fishing for these true trophy cats, nothing beats live bait and in my part of Texas, that is shad, perch comes in second.

Maybe no way to keep the shad alive? I can help with that, I have a couple of round bait tanks I made that will keep your bait alive and these are not the expensive ones we all would like to have either. Heck I want two of those lol. These I made work great. They do get in the way on my boat, I will be the first to admit.

I have been pursuing ways to keep live bait not just alive, but actually frisky, for a while now. I have made some big changes to the two livewells on my boat as well, heck I have never used them as a livewell anyway, I catch and release everything for the most part. So for my use they would be better served as baitwells.

It has allowed me to use them now as bait tanks, even on the trailer they do extremely well. Perch are a given as we all know how hearty these little monsters are, where my livewells on the boat fall short, they are not round. They do have big radius corners but the shad will kill themselves swimming over and over into even these softer corners.

So you just going at this a much easier way from the live bait presentation, which I do understand, or your time the day of going fishing, you want to go fishing and not deal with the finding and catching or what lol. Just curious is all. One of the single biggest issues I have here is west Texas area I fish is good live bait you can count on to just drop by on the way and just buy the bait you want. We just don't have that source we can count on. Minnows and worms is about it around here, one place here this year has had Black-Salties which I have been using this year, but they aren't the equal to even perch, let alone shad for these true trophy cats...

I have always been the artificial bait guy, just love to see what I can make bite with those and the bigger challenge it is to do that. All that with the fish that have scales. Going after these fish with skin has me wanting the live bait. I will admit though, I like throwing my cast net long as my beat up shoulders allow it. I have enjoyed messing around reworking my livewells on the boat and building the two round bait tanks also.

I have caught a few of our Whisker and skin favorites on artificial baits and still working on that presentation a little as time goes by also. I have not truly ruled that out at all. There will be much more on this artificial approach to cats coming soon. I still have to many things going on that I must get done before I get more involved with this more than I have already. I do plan to tack up a thread for any and all to comment on, about artificial lures for cats though. The issues with good live and cut bait being just one of the reasons...

I’m fishing evenings after work, so I catch the shad in the morning before work. I got a place 15 minutes from the job that I can catch. In

I have a bait tank I made out of a 30 gal drum that I use as a shad tank. Have kept shad alive over 24 hours in the tank. If transporting shad was legal i would catch and keep live,

If you catch them that morning and keep in a good cooler, on ice, and keep the water drained like mentioned above, I think you are going to be fine.

Live might be better, but it is a lot of work. Fresh ( and I would consider caught that morning and on good ice - as fresh for that evening) is still going to catch good fish!

Tight lines!

Ken

NOT LONG! Shad decompose, begin turning to mush quickly post mortem by the minute form the point of death, just like humans decompose quickly post mortem. You probably know how mushy they are when frozen and thawed out. Like putting cold stick butter on a hook. Dead shad are more durable if you dry them in the sun first before you hook’em, otherwise use fresh dead.

I like to put shad in an icy slurry with some non-iodine salt, then put them into the freezer. It's hard to get this just right, but if you do they won't completely freeze nor get mushy. There might be some videos on Youtube.

Scd,

So I am guessing you catch the shad at one place and fish a different lake? Regardless though, I am with Ken, thrown on ice as you catch them and leave the plug out, that is about as fresh as you get and not have live ones. Then if their not to big so you use the whole shad for a bait hooked through the head, it will stay on good, through the bottom lip and out through the nose area, or even through the eyes. The softer tissue of the body might require a little finesse to flink out if casting, but those soft little morsels will have the cats

I hope you gets things working like you need man.

I used a Ice Chest with a drain plug to keep the water off them. Also at the bottom of the chest I had a 1 1/2 inch wood frame with hardware screen on the frame . That keeps the shad out of the water of the melting ice .

If someone addressed this already and I did not read it I apologize. You are talking about catching threadfin shad in the mornings......yes, they wont last long. I have found straight onto ice is best and never had and luck at all freezing them. That being said, I do catch and bag gizzard shad. I try and keep a supply in the freezer just in case..LOL. I typically only put about two per bag so I don't end up thawing and wasting a bunch at one time. The gizzard shad will stay together and if you have not tried dead red blood spray from Team Catfish give that a go on your frozen or fresh shad. We have caught some 30-40lb blues on Joe Pool and Chambers using year old plus gizzard shad, dead red, rod and reel. Hope this helps.
One more thing, I freeze in water sometimes pouring a little of the dead red in the bag.
Ken

I've had really good luck using a vacuum sealer. The real trick here is to keep the shad alive in your livewell and vacuum sealing them the minute you get home. I don't rely on this method throughout the year, but I always have some stored for the dead of winter. This past winter I found no difference in the fishes preference over fresh caught. I definitely see a difference during the summer though. That might be due to the fact that a lot of shad die off in the winter and blue cats are used to picking up shad that have been dead a little while. All I know is that it keeps me from the early morning pain of frozen hands and no time wasted finding bait.

A couple days, have my best luck keeping them in a bad on ice and keeping the drain plug open. That being said, it works best with big gizzards and not as well with smaller threads and gizzards, they tend to get mushy pretty quick.

It's a lot of trouble but if ya got time wipe the slime off the shad then pack them in ice with the plug out....

If you are going to use them in a few days after catching I would not freeze them. What I have done is buy two large rectangle plastic containers. The first I set face down in the cooler. The second i drill holes in all over. I put the shad in this and set it on top of the one that is face down, so that it is off the bottom of the cooler. Then, i add ice. As the ice melts, pass through the holes and keep the shad from sitting in old water. I would also unplug the drain to the cooler if you are able.