Shad for bait

[van the man]

Saw an unusual number of shad on the local lakes last year. Anyone catch their own? What's a good size cast net - diameter/ mesh size? Best way to rig them? Do they survive well in a livewell? Is it better to just buy some shiners? I've never fished live shad before. Seems like a resource in abundance.

[dennishoddy]

Keep in mind when you see a throw net in the store and its advertised at a 4' net, it will be 8' in diameter.

I've caught a zillion shad with a 3' throw net, mainly because I didn't have a casting deck up front until now. Probably go with a bigger net now. The shad don't do well in a live well for me anyway. There are some chemicals you can buy to put in there that will keep them alive for awhile. They throw off their scales, and puke their food out while beating themselves against the live well walls, and in short order are dead.
The only way I've found to keep them alive for awhile is to just put a dozen or so in a large live well, instead of a net full of 50 or so to keep down the overcrowding, OR buy a dedicated shad tank.

[Eufaula boy]

Van when we use to spider rig minnows back years ago we to catch a few shad and mix them in for bait with our minnows. They were always hard to keep alive so we never caught or used very many. Now the crappie bite them completely different than a minnow or even a jig. You have to wait for the fish to commit 100% before you set the hook. Every day we used them we caught a big crappie on them. In the 2006 Crappie USA tournament on Eufaula in March my brother had the big fish of the tournament. It weighed 2.10 caught on a thread-fin shad in 18ft right off bottom. But we only caught 3 fish all day on shad the rest were off of minnows. EB

[TimY]

Speaking for Kaw Lake, I don't think people realize it but Kaw is full of ghost minnows. Don't know what's in the lake you are gonna fish but we have cleaned a lot of crappie this year and there are some shad in them but they are full of ghost minnows. In the winter, we use a 3/8 6ft diameter deep hole net. It's basically the same as a regular net except it has more weight and a strip of parachute webbing around the edge.This keeps it open down to 30 - 40 ft. As or shad, we have tried small ones over time but nothing beats a shiner. If you want a net for minnows, you have to buy a 1/4 inch net. Minnows will not go through the smaller openings.