Thread: Richard B Russell 3/9

They will spawn regardless of water clarity, the crappie dont care. But, it will mess up us fisherman catching them and finding them.....which may be a good thing to have all the females lay and spawn instead of going into the grease! Sure hate it b/c same thing happend last year, seemed like it was over before it started.

look for them shallow . they have to have a serton amout of light along withth the right temp.

Is this a recent kill and why did the shad kill happen with water temps in the upper 40's?

I figure that the shad will fall into the depths and be taken care of by the big predators which will leave a whole bunch of hungry females when they begin to push up into the shallows in the next couple of weeks.

Right now, they dont have lock jaw per-say, just that they are full and don't have to venture far for the food. Gonna be some really fat fish because of this kill.

The spawn should be fine for catching because they will have already eaten those shallower shad. Long-lining jigs will probably produce much better than any other technique at that time. You will cover much more water doing this thus increasing your chance of success...

The fresh rains may bring the water temps up a lil faster but it also washes in much need nutrients and minerals, so thats a good thing. As far as the silt or staining being a problem, it won't be. The vision of crappie is phenominal even in the poorest of conditions...Good luck to ya...

Don't know for sure why the kill happened, We've heard oxygen or lack of as the main theory? It began over a month ago and spread creek to creek. 1 - 11/2 in. threadfin. all small. Good to hear your positive thinkin' bout the spawn. Normally the kill on this lake would be the first few very cold nights of winter, with bait dying in shallow coves.

The water in Russell turned colder this past winter than I have ever seen it. It was when it dropped to 38-39 degrees on surface temps when the shad started dying off. The gulls left Clark Hill and invaded Russell for the easy pickens, and youn can bet the fish got their share too. It was nothing seeing 100-200 gulls in one area of a creek. I'm thinking from the cold water maybe some shad died quickly and some lingered but it was evident seeing dead shad on top of the water early mornings as well as seeing them fluttering upside down to the surface while fishing. And youre right...the fish should be full and fat getting transitioned up in the water column for the spawn. My plans are to fish Russell this coming week a couple of times to see if theyre hungry yet as that die off should have ended with warmer water and higher day/nite temps.

if oxygen deplection killed the shad shouldnt it keep the other fish also???

shad kills happen most winters that very cold and there not a bad thing on some lake at all when shad get to a point theres just too many they starve out other fish like bream and crappie that will fight for the same food right after they are out of the egg
carters 15 years ago was this way you couldnt find a gill there and the lake had been know to have big ones but you would find shools of shad every where some the size of homes and couldnt get a fish to bite they was full one good winter the shad kill was big on that lake gave a chance for other fish to step up to controll them better now theres great fishing there dont look at this as a bad thing

oh on a side note crappie is one of the bigest per pound egg layer of any game fish shad <not a game fish> are 1 1/2 times more then crappie you can kill enuff out of a lake to stop them from beig there in big numbers