Shad in creeks?

Is there a certain water temp to when the gizzards run up the creeks?

That’s too much work Matt. Gizzards are grouped up good and easy to get. Break out that deep net and go get em Amigo. 1 throw and your ready to fish.

I’m sure it may vary from lake to lake, I fish a shallow lake where the deepest part is 28’. During the winter time they will group in large schools just like the great pic El Gato posted. Once I find that school a couple of throws is all I need to have enough bait. When the water temp generally hits around 45 to 48 degrees the schools are harder to find and I start finding them in the creek.

They are loaded super shallow at my lake right now.. sandies, bass and cats are right on them.

Anyone catching Big Gizzard shad?

We been getting lots of 9-11” Magnums in 35ft. Big clouds of 8” gizzards are plentiful in 30 ft.

We catch em deep our way with a taped throw net as well.....

I caught some gizzard shad about hand size in mustang creek, lake fork two weeks ago. Wish I could keep them firm while freezing them? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I do place shad in freezer bags and use them out of my ice chest for two days and they stay fresh.

If you freeze them very quickly they will stay firmer. I freeze shad on a wire rack one layer thick inside a chest freezer with a fan inside blowing directly on them. once frozed gather them up into a ziplock bag. The faster you freeze them the smaller the ice crystals inside the fish. Freeze them slow and bigger ice crystals form and puncture all the cell membranes turning them to mush. Commercially fish is often frozen with a blast chiller of sorts to keep a firm texture. One bonus is that they are individually frozen and don`t need to be fully thawed before you bait them up.

Thanks guys, Sadly i cant access a boat right now so I'm stuck on shore and I've been having a tough time finding bait.