Anyone here tried it? Me & Captain Bly have been running jugs in the areas we Crappie fish, so last weekend we started practicing with the cast net catching shad for our jugs. The question came up, wonder if we could take some of the smaller shad & hook it like a minnow to catch Crappie? Should work right?

it will work ......but
the method we employ differs from what your suggesting ...
it is a great way to "ketch" fire out of all fish in the lake...
even carp eat the dang things

It works for crappie too. If you can, catch some shad in the 1-2" range, and fish them just like you would a minnow. They're not as hardy, but they are effective. I got to watch Chuck wear them out on shad a few weeks ago, much to my displeasure haha.

what he said! They work great on Waco!

Cleaned a bunch of Lake Lewisville fatties the other day that were so stuffed with shad it looked like they were about to spawn, so swollen! Crappie caught today at Bachman also stuffed with shad, "spawnlike" body shapes!

Lately I've been throwing a net on Benbrook and cathing biguns on the shad. They don't mind dead at all. I hook the dead shad though the eyes and hang on.

I used cut shad on a jig to catch a few crappie today. Just cut the shad vertically and put it on the hook.

Ima have to try the shad. That may put my little minnow house i go to out of business.

This aint fair, I cant play this weekend!! Good luck though buddy, and I forgot to tell you be careful throwing the net in the pond area, I almost lost it a couple of time to stick-ups on the bottom, but I did catch one of the small bass I told you about. I guess I netted his home ha ha!! I made sure I got straight over the top of the hang-up and slowly and lightly pulled and bounced the net like I do a hung jig and it came loose both times thank goodness!! From watching the youtube that morning I have a good idea that we may go through a net or two if we get addicted to doing this!!

A long time ago in E TX on a private lake, we were running a bunch of jugs. Pulled one up baited with a rather large shad that had been eaten by a big crappie which in turn was eaten by a huge black bass! Never seen that before or since! Bass probably went in the 6 to 8 pound range! Crappie was at least a 10" er.

Nice looks like more than just a few. Good going.

All fish love shad I have used them for bait once n a while for a long time. They are so easy to digest the fish can gorge on them easily. I never thought of cut shad on a jig though great idea!

If u can keep them alive, a 3-4" thread fin is probably the best bait u can get. Don't get any smaller because they'll be impossible to keep alive, and stick with threads, not gizzards. Use a 1/8-1/4oz slip weight, a swivel with about 12-18" leader and a #2-4 bait holder hook, and u are good to go.

The shad are thick here in front of my house. The cormorants were all over the place chasing them and yesterday it was the gulls flying around and diving for them from about 25' in the air...beautiful sight and I could hear them hitting the water from my deck!!! What a wonderful world!

Tomasc, where do you get your shad at Waco?