Had a tough day with schools of shad swimming through. Suggestions?

[Mr. S]

I agree, fish the edges of the bait ball. And try down sizing your bait to say a BG itty bit slab hunter or even a trout magnet. It's like the ol' adage, after thanksgiving dinner you don't want anther turkey leg, but a slice of pumpkin pie is just about right.

[Bricks]

This happens a lot on a lake I fish Walleyes the Shad schools are huge and Walleyes and every other fish that eats Shad hangs around these schools. What I do and many others is speed everything up what you are looking for is that reaction bite, trolling speeds will run close to 4.5MPH, or if your casting your basically burning cranks, spinners thru these school, looking for that reaction bite. Caught Crappies, Stripped Bass, Largemouth, Smallmouth Bass, Walleyes, Sheephead, Catfish at these speeds. If you watch your sonar you will see tons of fish hanging at the bottom of these schools of Shad waiting for crippled or injured Shad floating down.

[jay the baptist]

Yep. My Thursday afternoon trip was just like that. Muddy water and shad on the surface in schools everywhere. Zero fish in the boat.