I have caught and froze shad to use this winter. The problem I am having is when it thaws the shad become very soft and almost to the point of falling apart. Is this normal, or is there a trick to keeping them fresh?

What size shad are you freezing?

normal for frozen shad, especially threads. fresh is always best, always harder to find in winter. You can sometimes get by freezing gizzard shad as long as they are on the larger end...10+ inchers and even then sometimes all you can use are the heads of 'em.

I have learned along the way to take as much air out of the bag as you can and also dry them as best as you can. These two factors have a lot to do with making them fall apart when you thaw them out. But also like these guys said, usually the small threads will fall apart regardless.

The key to keeping them, DONT FREEZE THEM!!!!!!!! They will mush up and disentigrate. A perfect method is to bag them up in ziplocks, put em in the cooler, then put ice over them! I've kept shad fish able for 3 weeks like that last year!!

For freezing the bigger the better. I don't bother with freezing anything less than 6". The key to freezing them is freeze them as fast as possible and as dry as possible.

I've never had an issue with freezing them but I've only done it with gizzards 6+". I press as much air out of the bag as possible then slip into another zip-lock and squeeze that one out too. I keep them in a small cooler with ice while fishing so they stay frozen the whole time. They never get mushy and I figure they may release scent better as they thaw out in the water.

I also like to use them still frozen. Once in the water they will thaw out quickly and release scent then.

Most of mine are at the 4 to 6" size. Probably has a lot to do with it, but I haven't been drying them before bagging. The next ones I will definitely dry before freezing, and try to get larger shad to start. Thanks for all the insight.

I put mine in a deep aluminum tray in the back of my fridge right where the cold air comes down from the freezer.

Just buy a bag of frozen shad from the gas station, it works great! LOL

my cousin said he puts salt on them and dries em out, then freezes them

You know that doesn't work.

work's for the store owner.

On the other end of the spectrum, have you tried freezing them submerged in water? We used to freeze fish and shrimp like that using milk cartons and when we thawed them out to cook them it was as good as fresh