And I can't throw a castnet to save my life!! Are there any other ways to catch Shad? Can I buy Shad anywhere near me? Please help!

They are a pain in the butt.....I should say shoulder and arm. I had to have a Texoma fishing guide show me how.

What I dislike is that once you DO learn how to toss one, the stupid shad are not in the net. That's what I hate.

As a matter of fact, I have made me a shad trawl but have not had the time to go try it out yet.

It may work, it may not, but if I can catch ANY shad in it....then it is worth saving my arm.

Mind you, I dont' care if the shad die, I'm gonna use them for catfishing for blues anyway.

They do sell frozen shad in many bait stores however. They jsut don't seem to work as well as fresh shad however...in my opinion.

Good luck.

Hey RCP,most all of your local bait shops carry frozen shad and/or shad gizzards, they're nowhere near as good as fresh, but they do work,also you might want to try Bar S hot dogs,espically the ones with cheese,they work good! Good luck!

Start with a small 3' radious net first , it only opens to 6' diameter . practice throwing it in you yard then take it to the lake and practice. Once you master it then you can get a 6' radious net that opend 12' diameter. If you around lake ray hubbard anytime i can show you how to throw one very easy.

If you are a bait fisherman, learning to throw a castnet is almost a must. Buying bait is expensive and there is nothing like good live bait, especially for yellowcats, stripers or reds. It's not easy, but buy yourself (unless you already have one) a 5' monofilament castnet. read the instructions or have someone show you how and then go out in the backyard and practice...practice...practice. It took me days to get it to open even a little bit. Now I throw a 6' with ease, and you will too, just hang in there.
Roger

How do you keep the shad alive once you catch them. I can catch them fine but they only live about 5 minutes after that.

First off,

Learning to throw a cast net is a pain....but it's acheivable if you find someone to teach you one on one. THen it's just practice, practice, practice.
Second question,
You can buy a seine net, just need two people to use it properly. Sandy areas are the areas I'd stick to with a seine net...don't want to get it caught up in timber or rocks. Also, I think there's a length limit to seine nets, so make sure you check with TPWD.
Finally,
Shad can be kept alive in an aerated tank...from what I've heard they need to be round. Only shad I've got to stay alive with a 5gal. bucket are large ones.

THrowing a net, to me, needs to be a fluid motion. On the other hand, I found a way to get it to open without proper mechanics. It's hard for me to explain in words, but you need to find someone who knows how to throw, has an easy method, and is willing to teach you. GOod Luck!

Go pick up one of those supper spreader nets from wally world think a 6 footer will run you 22 bucks. It comes with a video that teaches you how to throw it and it also comes with the supper spreader ring which makes it so easy to throw it and make it open up right takes very little effort compared to the old style cast net. Ive used cast nets of all sizes, but since I picked up one of those supper spreader nets i wont go back. Personally I think a 6 footer is the best all around size net. Once you get your cast net you need to let it soak in a bucket of dish soap over night then take it out and lay it flat in your yard spread it out and drive sticks threw the holes so it streches out after sevral hours the sun will heat it up and get all the kinks out of it. Also when you store your cast net hang it buy the rope dont keep it wadded up it makes it allot more easy to cast if you keep the kinks out of it.

I learned to throw my 12ft diameter a couple weeks ago by watching this 6 min long video:

http://64.119.173.247/~vsimedia/media/3-how-to-throw-a-castnet-300.asf

It is the first time I ever threw one.

if that link doesn't work, it the streaming video on this page:
http://www.islamoradasportfishing.com/castnet.htm

It really requires very little body motion and effort to do it right with this method.

Hope that helps

Click here http://www.calusa.com/watchvideo.cfm?name=notrequired for an on line video. Get you a 6 or 7' net. I recommend a 7' as you will catch more bait in less throws. They sink faster and trap more shad per throw. Learn to read the water, watch for the tale tale ripples, birds/cranes on the shore feeding, throw at night around lighted docks, creeks are all chock full of bait right now. Easy Easy Easy right now. Sandy shores are usually good for bait, wind blown shores even better. Later you will want to throw on edges in a little deeper water, electronics play a big part. The thread fin will move out of the creeks and the big gizzards will be most of what you'll catch in the creeks. Watch a couple different videos and adapt to your on style, not one set way to throw a net, seen it done a wide variety of ways, do what fits you best. Practise practise practise, and throw a big gun. You'll catch more. keeping them alive is a different story and I will post later on what I do. Aeration,filtration and lots of rock salt. Stock salt is cheap at feed stores, a handful per 5 gallons water. Good luck.

I think that 7' is illegal ? I had heard of a story where the game warden measured a store bought net that was 2" to big in diameter and fined a guy, so maybe it was the 6' net that was a sure to be the legal net in my thoughts. Maybe i'm just rusty on the net size rules.

Get a 7' and measure. If it is a couple inches long, tie a knot in it.
If you are cattin, place them in baggies and place on ice. Want to keep em alive then ya gonna have to spend some $.

Never heard of rock salt...thanks for the tip!

The rock salt or stock salt (non iodized) helps keep the slime coat on them, kind of works as a sedative and helps keep em calmer, also will help to retain your O 2 in the water. In the summer I add ice, hot water will not retain O2, but when you add ice your also adding chlorine that will kill them, for that I use Hydrogen peroxide, a drop per 5 gallons, I add a splash for good measure. This time of year you can get away with aeration only, something that draws O2 from air and puts bubbles in water, in the summer if your going to do it you better have an oxygen bottle and regulator and o2 stone. I have a design ( George Good with TSA showed me)on a filtration/aeration system that can adapt to any tank and works as well or better than anything on the market and you can make it out of a bucket, pvc pipe, and a milk crate and bilge pump and filter material. I will try to draw a picture and get it scanned, it is easy to make just hard to describe with out a pic. I use this in my 250 gallon tank at Whitney and can keep Gizzard shad alive till they literally starve to death, they don't, I use em faster than that. LOL.

[img]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TQAFAwYXrYJk4LpVViy*ZKg3NDgz0BiAmrEqqu0x1W0xqNavrfQj4gMfsbYxTQGpmbZ!eYsUYLJQNCmbjuNg52QyzYSyY9iPP3m9EJgfxus!5KZZBxRF0A/Bait%20tank.bmp[/img]

Don't laugh too much.

Here is a really rough draft of the filter system. Start with a 2.50 or 5 gallon bucket, attach bilge pump in bottom with discharge tube going thru side of bottom of bucket, at pump housing where discharge exits drill appx 3/8 hole and place copper tube in hole and run up wall of bucket, I crimp off the top end and leave a very small opening to draw air. Measure 1/2 way down inside of bucket and cut a circle out of milk crate to fit, cut a hole in the center of milk crate the size of 1 1/2 pvc pipe, this will slide down in bucket 1/2 way, with pvc tube in middle of crate, crate will support filter material. You will need 2 short pieces of pvc pipe and a male and female adapters, cut a hole in center of bottom of bucket the size of the adapters and attach adapters, place one piece of pvc pipe in bottom adapter (length varies to size of bait tank) put a screen over bottom of pvc, this will draw scales up tube and into filter material. place the other piece of pvc pipe in adapter inside of bucket in adapter, this will run up through middle of milk crate, cut it off where it is below water level, above filter material and below edge of top of bucket, scales and trash will naturally flow up tube and down over crate and disharge clean water out pump, copper tube will draw O2 and pump into water. Mount bucket to top of any container and you have agreat bait tank. Oh, go to hobby lobby or wal mart in the cloth/sewing deptartment and get some batting material and cut filter material to place above crate. Now your done. BTW, I don't use any glue on pipe any where, afraid it might put unwanted chemicals in tank and contaminate it.