The shad effect. Like a new lake.

[keithdog]

In the pic posted here you will see a map of one of the lakes I fish most often. You'll need to click on the attachment at the botom of the page as I wasn't able to get it onto this page in picture form for some reason. Named Flint lake, this 89 acre lake is a naturally formed lake from the glaciers durring the ice age. It has no feeder streams or dams. Primarily a sandy bottom, with some areas that are muck. The various species in the lake are bass, bluegills, perch, crappie, pike, catfish, dogfish, carp, and the occational walleye. Not many walleye because they don't reproduce in this lake. Any left are from a previous stocking. Up untill now, the main forage for bass was small panfish, and other fry of the various species. And of course, frogs and so on. There were no shad in this lake that I know of. I've never heard of anyone seeing any shad, and never found evidense of shad in the bass I've caught over the years. But low and behold, they are there now. Not sure of when and how, but they are there and it has changed the lake completely. It will be interresting to see over the comming years how this all developes. I know very little about shad, and don't know if they will even reproduce or not. I've heard they need a stream to swim up to spawn but I'm not sure if this is correct or not. But I have noticed a few changes in the behavior of the bass. For one, they arn't where they used to be. In the past, I caught bass in this lake by working spinnerbaits in the weed beds and brush, cranking deeper weedbeds, and pitching into the slop or froggin the slop. And while I have caught the occational bass using these methods this year, for the most part, these techniques have given poor results at best, especially as of late. After ice out, the hollow bodied swimbaits were killer. But once late spring/early summer came on, the shallows seemed deserted. Some of you may have read my two recent posts about wolfpack bassin. This is the lake I was fishing. The bass used to be concentrating on the bluegills and other small fish that hung out in the weedbeds. But now, they are chasing the shad all over the lake. And I mean all over. They are busting schools of shad anywhere from the bank to the middle of the lake. They are not hitting the lures I used to use as they are not where they used to be. Now they are following these schools of shad wherever they go. And the bass appear to be thicker, heavier bass. Not longer, but bigger. Very healthy! How this will all work out will be interresting. If the bass and pike are chasing the shad, what will happen to the panfish populations? Will they become stunted due to over population? And what techniques will I need to develope as the seasons change? So far, I know I can take them with poppers, and soft plastic jerkbaits like flukes. I've caught close to 100 bass the past two outtings on these two baits. But I know there must be other baits that can be effective around shad chasing bass. I still get a few on crankbaits, but they won't hit any spinnerbaits I throw into the feeding frenzy. They seem to not be interresting in shallow cranks, swimbaits, and other baits I've thrown at them. They seem very specific about what they will hit. I'm currious how a Rapala shallow X Rap Shad in a shad color would work. Or maybe a spoon jerked through the school of shad. Different ideas are comming to me to try. So I'm interrested in any feedback from anglers who fish lakes containing shad. What can I expect as far as where shad will be at various times of the year, what lures you find to be especially good for fishing for bass when they are chasing shad, and so on. Unlike huge reservoirs, this small lake will limit the shad as to where they can go. There is a small short ditch about 100 foot long that crosses under a road through a large pipe that leads into another lake. No doubt shad will reach that lake soon if they havn't already. This introduction of shad will cause me to rethink my approach to catching bass, and it's all new to me. Any tips or suggestions any of you may have will be greatly apprciated. Oh, almost forgot. Can anyone identify what kind of shad I have pictured here? I'm sorry about the quality of the pic, but I only had a cell phone to take the photo with.

[keithdog]

Dang, I meant to post this in the General Bass Fishing section, and I don't know how to move it there. If anyone does, could you please let me know? Thanks

[66KingFisher]

When I got interested in painting my own crankbaits, I did a little research for reference pics of the shad here in Arkansas.....As far as I know we only have Gizzard and Threadfin shad in the 300 acre lake I primarily fish....they are very simular....Here's a couple of pics that might help identify yours.

[walkeraviator]

Just a heads up... i fish a 50 acre lake here in Lousiville that was destroyed by the introduction of Shad. The fish absolutely drove every game fish into extinction in the lake with teh exception fo catfish... til about 10 years ago they eradicated the shad population and placed a ban on using shad as live bait... usage as live bait is probably how they ended up in your lake to begin with. You may want to alert the local Fish and Wildlife as to your discovery as they may be unaware and could have concerns about their introduction...

just food for thought...

[rrw4258]

We have several reservoirs in town where I live, and they are the most urban places to fish. These reservoirs have a lot of shad in them, from what I have seen they are gizzard shad. The bass that come from these reservoirs are just flat out healthy. These things are some of the fattest, thickest bass you have seen. Half of the time when we catch fish, it already has a shad tail sticking out of it's throat, and is ready to eat more.

From my experiences these shad have been in these holes for a while, because once in a while we snag into a nice big shad.... have caught some well over 12"... but most we see are around 3-6" long.

Ryan

[Dave63]

Agree. When they are kept small and edible size, you will have some footballs.

[keithdog]

Not sure who moved this post to General Bass Fishing, but whoever it was, Thankyou!

[bassinbob]

I think there will still be bass that feed on the panfish. Might just be the bigger ones. Have you caught a 5 or 6 lber. busting those shad? I think the bigger bass might not go after these shad balls but might work the bottom where the injured ones fall. I also thin k the biger fish will not follow these balls around just take advantage of them if they happen to be in their area.

[keithdog]

Originally Posted by bassinbob

I think there will still be bass that feed on the panfish. Might just be the bigger ones. Have you caught a 5 or 6 lber. busting those shad? I think the bigger bass might not go after these shad balls but might work the bottom where the injured ones fall. I also thin k the biger fish will not follow these balls around just take advantage of them if they happen to be in their area.

I think your right. I am catching mainly smaller bass around 1-2 pounds with a few 3 pounders thrown in. I had a couple on that I'm sure were larger but they got off. Mainly it's smaller bass. I've seen some blowups though that I'm sure were pretty good size.

[screwballl]

There needs to be a balance... if there is enough bass to start when the baitfish was introduced, then the bass to baitfish ratio will balance itself out in a few years. If it was a lake (like a few here) where people keep almost anything and everything they catch and a bass over 12" is rare to come by, then yes shad can be a very dangerous addition to a lake (typically under 100 acres). One specific lake I know of has bluegill that grow bigger than a majority of the bass that are caught out of it.

There is one little known lake here in the Florida panhandle (Lake Victor, a little over 100 acres) where the FWC stocked a large number of both bass and shad some 20 years ago. Now it is an excellent bassin lake from spring spawn to around Thanksgiving when the bass shut down and head super deep and refuse to bite anything. There are several double digit bass pulled out of this lake every year, and even some good size bluegill and perch that feed on baby shad. Since it is fairly remote and not too many bass are kept, the population stays fairly balanced.