Why do shad jump out of the water?

I ask because the lakes I've been familiar with in the past, if I threw a spoon (or anything for that matter), I was certain to catch a fish. I was told, back then, it was fish circle the shad and then attacking them. Today, shad went crazy for about an hour in the same area and couldn't get any variation of bass to the boat, seemed like they were jumping for no reason and not as tight of a group as what I'm used too. A short time later, I had some luck, although very little, with catfish. I was orignally searching for LM. Thanks in advance for the education on the subject.

because shad are stupid!! from what I've heard, they taste like molded rubber, they're extremely slimy, and they stank!!

But hey they work for bait!!


I don't think it's the same as carp jumping at running dams..

OK tell us what lake your talking about???

Stillhouse Hollow

Ok that makes sense now

happy shad

The only time I've seen shad jump out of the water is when someone is trying to eat them. Seems like reasonable behavior to me

lots of fish eat shad.

could have very well been any number of predators chasing them.

sometimes, when they are eating shad like that, you have to really get close to the size and color that the shad are sometimes not to catch them.

try and match the hatch as close as you can and you should be able to catch one of whats eating them, a silver or white road runner works well for this at times.

Jaws is about to put the munch on em

If something's trying to eat me I wouldnt just sit there. What would you do?

It may have been a school of Circus Shad.

Gizzard shad are bad about slapping the water. I have no idea why.

...because the HydroWave was on.

To check out all the "hot babes" in the boats!

ive heard people say that they maybe do it to clean out there gills or something like that

Must have been females shad...

I believe that at times shad kinda flicker'in the top of the water maybe feeding and not running from bigger fish.Now when they are jumping for thier lives,and you see fish blowing up on them "It's ON!!"

Also, shad can scare themselves. If they are balled up or moving in a big school all it takes is for one to react to anything and the whole school can go nuts for a second.

At night on belton. Any time you would here a BOOM from the base, we would have so many jumping they would land in the boat.

You must've turned on your Hydrowave and not known it!

I was about to say the same thing.

I agree, if they are leaping out of the water something is after them. I've seen it happen as they travel over a hump. they seemed to get to a certain spot and something would explode on them and a couple would fly over a yard out of the water. every once in a while we would see a bass behind them. I wasn't too successful at getting the bass. I've been wanting to try an Alabama rig in that spot but those things seems like they are more of a hassle then what they are worth.

If they are just flopping around, chances are there's nothing causing it, why bring unecassary attention if your a defenseless little shad...now if they are skittering across the top in short bursts..they are running from something

Not sure if serious......

Predator chasing them is most likely.

Too much hype about shad jumping out h2o , now if the water is boiling with what appears to be a feeding frenzy that's different.

Yea I don't really care if I see shad busting unless there is obviously something larger trying to eat them. Sometimes running a white spinner bait below them will pick a few fish off.

Shad are at the bottom of the food chain and are eaten by pretty much anything that swims, jumps or flys. It is for this reason that they are by nature skittish as he77. As stated before they will freak out themselves while schooling weather they are being targeted or not. You would be jumpy too if everybody was after your azz.

If you spend enough time on the water, sooner or later you'll see a school of shad running the bank trying to escape from preditor fish and depending on the size of the school it can be quite the site to see.

Every member of the sunfish family has figured out how to do this and that the pickins are pretty easy if you can herd them into the bank and choke them off from escape. Things sure do start getting interesting when the water starts to boil.