Big Baits in the Winter...Gizzard eaters

Hello TFFers,

Cold weather is here and I'm starting to catch some fish with FAT BELLYS!

A few fish have had tails exposed in their gullets when I caught them...and Red lips...Both pretty solid indicators the BIG GURLS are feeding heavy...

If you enjoy catching Trophy fish -Big Baits can really be the ticket but you have to be ready for a lot of days with nothing to show for it (We won't talk about that...)

PLUS...Look at he size of the Gizzard... 9 Inch Bullshad aint too big! This fish was just over 7lbs

Nice. What was the water temp? Water depth?

Cool pics!

My sharelunker was caught on a 7" gizzard imitation from storm lures in January. They definitely eat a bunch of gizzards in Texas.

56 degree water...10-12 foot flat

Well done sir!

Nice!

How much water clarity is needed for the bait to be effective?

Clear to Semi Clear is preferred...but due to the size of the bait in the pic- they see/hear it coming from a ways off...

It's presence hard for them to miss...they make a decision pretty quick if they are gunna eat it or not

I have had fish as small as 3 lbs try to eat it...pretty crazy!

American-Texan, I have that same bait and (WAS) going to put it in my upcoming garage sale. Just changed my mind as I'm heading to Falcon this weekend. What line are you throwing that on?

I've said this many times before... figure out where the gizzard shad are and you'll find the big bass. That goes for all of our lakes around here, they all have em!

Nice! What have you found to be the best way to retrieve it? Burn it? Slow? I throw glide baits but have never tried fishing a knockoff bull shad I have.

Anybody tried the rapala super shad rap ? Great bait fast or slow.

Dude, that's a small one. Every shallow water shock survey at night brings up 16-18 inchers

I have seen gizzard shad as big as a football.