I wouldn't spend to much time or money on this venture - sorry fish are way to easy to come by on Texoma to pay for bait - just my thoughts - sorry again never had an issue catching sandies or stripers here with or without bait = Clete

I would buy them everytime went to texhoma!! But we only go once a year mabey twice if we do good the trip. If i planed a big trip drove all the way up there and could not find bait i would pay what ever price was on the bag .

If I was going to Texoma, which admittadly isn't all that often due to the drive, I would stop every time PRIOR to the lake and pick up a dozen simply because I usually can find bait but after a 2 hour drive and the cost of gas for the round trip, a mere $10. or so for guaranteed shad is a pittance to pay for the insurance of having guaranteed live shad. The guides won't be your main customers except for years where there is a shad kill like last year- That would be an additional cost of business that they don't want to eat or have to raise prices to their customers to cover more cost. However leisure fisherman would probably all come in if they are aware of your live shad. I go to Texoma to catch fish and finding the shad I want is more like part of the commute to me- just another cost/time before I can get to fishing. Make sure you give each customer a disclaimer that generally says that these shad will die if they don't have the proper well, filtration and water quality. Good luck - If you have the determination and can market it, it may work. Remember you have the cat guys who are year round shad users and they sometimes buy shad just because they are sick of throwing the net.

problem with guides is we need too many baits..on any given day i will catch and carry 150-250 shad per trip.. at $5 per dozen thats a bunch of money for me to pay..20 doz @ $5 per = $100.
now granted it does cost me est...20 + bucks a day in gas to run around catching bait and anywhere from 2-3 hours of time..but except for the gas savings which is real cash i wouldnt pay that much $$ just to be able to sleep in a couple extra hours.
as a guide my bait is my livelyhood and my reputation...i never use day old bait as i feel it just isnt as good as freshly caught bait. so that is another issue i might have with buying shad.. there are plenty of guys who hold bait over the next day or even 3 days.. but the real good ones I know wont do it.

i would love to see that being available as an option in emergency situations but i just couldnt do it on a regular basis.
for those saying they would buy 1-2 dozen for a trip...i dont see how anyone could expect to go out and have a decent day fishing with just 24 threadfin shad.. they will not last more than a few minutes on a hook and then when you get a missed bite and loose one and or it gets killed your out of bait in less than an hour.
now most days i dont use 200+ shad but i will never run my customers out unlees we have just caught too many fish
i would love to see another tackle shop near my area but make sure you study the market well and really know who and where your customer base will come from. now maybe your not resting all your hopes on just selling shad..having a full service tackle shop would be a great idea but if your hoping to make bank on just selling shad be careful
good luck if you make it happen !!
any idea on which part of the lake or town you would like to do this in ?

my $.02 Shiners are what $.50 each. That would be your competition. If you are asking me if I would pay more for shad I am not sure. I have used shiners side by side with shad and done well with them. Not better but not worse. I think that is what the market is right now. Oh and if you do run it make sure you give out a "fisher man Dozen" that is 13 not 12. especially with shad because one always dies and if it don't then I feel like you are giving me a deal and I will come back next time. I got some minnows for my son to fish for crappie on lake Kiowa, little store right at the entrance. Not only were they [censored], way too small, the [censored] had the gall to count each and every minnow that went in to the bag. I will never go back even if hell freezes over I won't.
Ok that was my .02

Just my opion, but everywhere I have heard that sells shad, sells out quickly. Guides may n ot use it, cause they can find bait and are on the water everyday, for my self if it were available to buy. I would much rather spend a little money for bait rather than run all over the lake looking for gizzards. Thats just me though...

"how much would I pay"?

For a dozen large gizzard shad (6"-8"), $10 seems about right. Of course, you could just put up a sign saying:

LIVE SHAD $1 EACH
SPECIAL TODAY $12/DOZEN

Freeze and market in various sizes. Always a buyer.

I hit every bait shop/convenience store between Quinlan and Fork looking for 4-6" frozen shad yesterday. Found a total of one bag. When the bite is hot, that lasts about an hour. Somebody could do very well, if they focused on this market.

This stuff is gold for cats, but also for my target...



...also puts a few of these on the line now and then, quite by accident...

We lived in greenville SC for a time and fished lake hartwell. They had a bait shop with a drive through. For about 50 cents or a dollar? a bait (large herring), a young guy would jump in your boat, fill your wells with water, put in the bait, tap the tailgate and you're off. They also sold 12-14 inch trout and a variety of other live baits.

Put an outfit like that on Texoma and I'll be there dropping $50-100 every weekend morning.










https://maps.app.goo.gl/GM8QeAFsXwNECTtP9

Sounds crazy, but if you had tanks in boat and could sell gizzard and other shad, worms,etc.... on the lake....that would be priceless.....I'd pull up and buy a few dozen and might be back all day long.....but on the lake like floating bait shop!....you post what lake, then before you know it...your on every lake.

During fall and winter fresh shad on ice going 7-8 dollars a pound and they sell out

I’m not mad at this idea at all. I have to get up at 2am and drive an hour when I fish Texoma. If there were an east button, and the quality is good I’d like to have this in my back pocket. Heck I’ve had days where I struck out finding live bait and it’s nerve wracking.

U would kill it guiding up there for 20+ years people beg for it all the time if i get extra i give it but not very often i get extra if they would stay alive in our tanks people would buy the [censored] out of it the only problem is going from ur water to lake water will they stay alive and they have to have their scales a naked shad with no scales is dead to me if u do it please contact me as far as price people will pay especially in the great world we live in right now

I think the market is a fisherman like me. I only fish Texoma about 6 weekends a year. I have to choose. Do I go to where I think the fish might be and use artificial at first light? Yes, this is what I do. Or, I could try and find shad in the morning. If I have no luck finding shad. I'm frustrated, wet maybe, wasted 2 hours. Then get going to fishing spots that were suggested to me. Because I do not fish enough to know where to go. So it could be 9 or 10 am and No fish or I'm not even to my spots yet.

I have a 30 gallon bait tank. But, I've always struggled to keep the Shad alive. Again limited time. So, yes if I could meet you at 5 am. Get 40 -50 live shad. With your recommendations on how to keep them alive for a few hours in my tank. I would pay $1. each.