This works with slabs or live shad but shad need to be used for 100% success. (if there is such a thing)
Get in what you think is a multi acre prime area of lake water and cruise at 25mph with sonar pinging. when you see a cloud of shad at whatever deph immediatly turn around and best guess the spot (try and get a tad upwind of your spot to drift through it) , drop down to that deph where you saw the shad with your nose/lips hooked [(we put shad's tail in the water and count/pull out two feet of line from the spool at a time to accuratlt judge target deph)] shad and if you got it right all rods get bent. when you drift out of them start over.
A school of shad is a huge sonar return and easy to find. find the shad and you will find the striper. I hope this helps someone. I learned it as a teenager from a guide on Texhoma. It worked for me and my dad evertime after that.
Someone get back to me if you have luck at it. It was some of the best memories of my home with dad years.

I am trying to figure this one out. Is there more to it than what you are saying? Maybe the shad cover up the fish echoes? I have fished many times in huge balls of shad and never got a strike. My general rule is to try to mark fish first and shad second. The ideal situation is to have both but sometimes too many shad seem to work against you.

I don't know. We were on Texoma and trip after trip it worked with live shad only being used. Remember you out in wide open water with no structure around, the only structure is the school of shad that the trailing stripers (pure strain, no hybrids or sands)were keying on. It appeared that when we found the shad, the striper were there following their food source as well.

If there are lines into the cloud of shad
you can almost bet that fish are feasting.
just my opinion, and you know what those
are worth.

hey slabnshad, where can i get that slab you have in you pic? It looks great!

Texoma don't have as much shad roaming all over like we do here, Your idea is a great one I too do this but don't B dissapointed here at Hubbard when this isn't working all the time. U will C there is alot more bait running around this little lake.

Yeah i can see that. That is an excellent problem to have though, all that dense forage makes for an great striper habitat and growth rate.

Early mornings on Texoma I'd look for "slick water" when there was a chop on the water and use a 9-foot spinning outfit with a 2-oz. pencil popper - cast the popper over and past the slick and work it vigorously back thru the slick and almost always get a hook up. The slick is actually shad emitting oil that is lighter than the water and it actually prevents that water from being "chopped".

Iv'e done that on taw.out in the middle of the lake and hit schools roaming around.I always pay attention to my graph when moving around.Striper are not always on structure.

mth, sent you a PM

thanks for the tips mth!

Has any one seen my box of rocks? It was just here.

I read this forum and pick up tidbits here and there. Thanks for the advice.

This may work well on Texoma, but it's not so good on other lakes.

It works great here at Cedar Creek, try to stay in water that runs from 42' to 52' and watch your graph very closely. Try to follow the creek and river beds.