I had a really frustrating experience yesterday. I've been a creek/river fisherman my whole life, and now that I have a kayak with some electronics, I am trying to learn to effectively fish open water. I was fishing Lake Lewisville yesterday afternoon/evening for sandies while kayaking around a 10-11ft flat with some standing timber here and there. I was marking schools of fish scattered around the flat, all of them suspended around 4-7ft of depth. The birds moved in all around me, and were divebombing the water, catching shad. I figured that if the birds are catching shad, and I'm marking schools of sandies that are probably feeding on the shad from below, I should be catching them. Just goes to show, the fish don't give a darn what I think I know about them. I had a 1/16oz white grubtail jig, with a #4 split shot about a foot up from the hook to help it sink. I was just fan casting all around the kayak and slowly retrieving.

What should I have done differently?

Only suggestion that I have in such a situation is to try throwing something different, or go with a different presentation. Maybe a larger lure, or drop it below you and bounce the bottom.

Jake, a few questions: 1) Regardless of what the birds were doing, did you ever see a white bass chase shad to the surface and cause a splash or "boil"? Obviously, there are far more shad in a typical lake than there are white bass to eat them. There are plenty of times when birds simply lock in on shad which are not being chased to the surface from below, especially in shallow water.

2) Did you take any sonar screenshots we can take a look at?

If you are CERTAIN there were white bass present and still could not get them to eat, you might (as Uncle Zeek suggested) try going larger with your bait. At this point in the annual cycle, there are nothing but mature shad in the lake which are nearly a full year old. Fish will not start keying in on small baits until those shad spawned in the next 6-7 weeks begin to grow out. I suggest a bait ~3.25" long.

Let us know!

--Bob Maindelle

Thanks y'all, the suggestion about larger bait is really helpful.

I didn't see any white bass actually surface. I did see a gar or two and some shad jumping here and there.

Unfortunately I did not get any screenshots. I am still learning my way around the functions of my Garmin (yesterday was the first time I took it out).

I fished LL for quite a few years. I've seen gar do that to shad more on that lake than any other. Screenshot would easily tell what they were.

FYI, white or chrome is the ticket on that lake. I would go with a half or three quarter spoon.

Thanks Notaguide. White is my go to color for jigs, silver for rooster tails. I need to get some more slabs and spoons.

I would say with where we have been catching fish on Lewisville recently the catfish are up that shallow and the sandbass are out deeper. We really havent caught much any shallower than 20ft. you possibly could have been looking at big gizard shad as well. Right now the sandbass have been on main lake points in 20-30 ft of water.

#1 - the shad spawn seems to be in full force on the lake. We fished the LE bridge yesterday for a bit and my son was able to use a dipnet to scoop shad up that was swimming around the pillars. So, that's one issue.
I haven't been able to locate huge numbers of stacked up fish but we've found enough to keep us occupied.
We have also downsized our baits. We were using 1/4" jigheads with chartreuse bubble bellies and fishing them nearly dead still straight up and down just off the bottom. Nothing coming when casting out.

We're also using the Livescope to entice fish that seem interested but aren't aggressive.

Mainly, hard to compete with the number of shad that are in the lake right now.

At Cedar Creek Lake at present we have not seen many fish at 10 to 12 fow; they are mostly at 20 fow on the bottom. I don't recall ever finding catchable sandies suspended halfway down in 10 to 12 fow. The fish you saw may not have been sand bass.

Had that happen with stripers - schooling all around me.
I was throwing a swim bait and got bit but I could'nt catch any. Then I realized i left the plastic cover on the hook.
Surprised you did'nt get any on that bait - maybe you were'nt deep enough.

It makes a lot more sense that I was likely seeing a bunch of shad swimming around shallow in open water, especially with the birds coming down and picking them off like crazy. Headed out to Lake Grapevine this afternoon for a bit with the kayak, and saw a few decent fish, but a lot of shad schooled up. At least we know the fish have plenty of food.

Jake, when things get frustrating with finicky fish, don't forget trying to "match the hatch".
I've had visible fish breaking in the spawning shad, and not been able to get a bite.
Most likely that was because my bait was outnumbered about 500 to one as a choice
to eat, and just didn't beat the odds.

I took the advice from this thread and passed it along to my dad yesterday. He ended up going to Cottonwood Creek Marina which sits right by a large point in 20-30 ft of water. Him and his girlfriend ended up with 16 fish (including a couple hybrid) in the 30 minutes before sundown. They were throwing slabs (can’t remember how large he said they were).

He picked a good area for this time of year