I tried it today, and really, the fishing was horrible.
Same exact spot though, tried stinkbait, and did really well.

I got an 11 pounder.


But anyway, why is everyone so excited about shad?

great chatch !.... most of the guys that use shad are looking for big fish ...over 20 lbs ...Blues cats...it is the pefered bait for the big ones.... not to say that you can not catch them on stinkbait but you wont catch as many big oness...follow the Cat fish tourney trail and see what those guys are using to bring in the big blues...it is Shad.... There is your reason for everyone getting so excited about shad.....

I've caught more quaility fish using shad than prepared baits like stink bait. If you can find shad you should always have a couple of rods out with shad on them at least for the benefit of mixing things up. If you use the shad enough you'll see what we mean. to the TFF

Agree, I always have at least one shad one. I mix the rods with lots of different baits. Liver, Shad, Carp, Stink Bait, and Doughs.

Nice pic Bro. Terry.

Ty, were you fishing for channels or blues?
Like said cut shad is by far the preferred bait for blues and usually you can get some bigger ones with it but it will also get you some channels. My opinion only, if you want numbers of channels go with the stink/prepaired baits, cheap hot dogs, liver, shrimp, or even cocktail wennies. If you want blues, go with fresh cut shad or even buffalo fillets if you have them .

I was just going for catfish in general off my friends dock.
We don't know that much about it.
But we only caught channels.

Shrimp works well, as does the hot dogs...However, if you're going to use hot dogs, microwave them first for a bit to toughen them up...

fish in lakes and rivers eat mainly one thing, other fish. shad is a natural forage fish. bass baits, striper baits, etc..all do one thing, imitate forage fish.....other baits will catch smaller fish, because they will eat mostly anything, if ya want a good fish, go with shad my friend

Does it need to be live?
I just don't understand why it was so ineffective in a proven spot.
and i gave it like an hour and a half.

I think with just one day of fishing results could be a fluke.

However, fish are generally creatures of habit. Are there a lot of docks around? The neighborhood fish could be conditioned to eat soured bait. Another possibility is a healthy bird populations, in which case the fish are trained to clean up after the birds.

Not necessiarily live but you can fish them live. They're hard to keep alive on a hook for any time. I've fished them live, cutting their tail off to where they slightly bleed. My thoughts are they become two attractants, injured fish, and blood scent. Of course having a hook through your nose will give off some injured fish signals. When fishing live I hook them through their upper mouth out the nose. Don't hook them through the bottom to top of mouth. This will kill them quicker. I mainly use fresh cut shad heads and I'm usually fishing for blues. The fresher the better.

Great posts, the hotdogs in the microwave I actually gave them a shot, got off the boat and went to a spillway and kept telling myself that the hotdog was just going to wash off of the hook, now i know nuke em, thanks for that.

Ty, you will catch alot of channels on the stinkbait but if you cannot find the big shad try to sane for some little carp (6" and below) you are probably fishing with the packaged shad nowhere near the fresh lake shad, and plan on letting that pole sit awhile, once that bigun hits you will be hooked. Any extra shad or carp you catch, freeze em and use them the next time you go. 11 pound channel is huge, you better look Ill bet that was a hungry bluecat. You catching those ten and eleven pound cats I wont move off of that hole, there are bigger ones in there with them and the shad or carp will thin the herd for you.

Good luck and reply back to my pm I am interested to see if you are the same TY Butler, not too many folk with that name, that I used to run around with in Austin as a kid. Parents name Jack Rawhide and Sandy?

Nah, sorry.
Thanks for the advice though.

I've used shad during a two month period when I was out of work from April to June this year, and absolutely hammered the cats both blue and channel. Just fished them dead on the bottom whole, maybe 3" long. When the shad were thick, just one toss of the castnet would get an entire bucket full which would last all day long. Now I'm kicking myself for not freezing any for these days when the shad are scarce

I always use shad if I can. I don't care about catching lots of little channels. I want bigger fish and shad is the best for that. I promise you if you fish enough you will learn how good shad is.