Jigs & Spoons

[Mike Worley]

We have been catching some pretty decent fish on jigs lately. We have been casting 3/16 - 5/16 jigs and working them real slow in about 10'-20' fow. White jigheads or bucktails tipped with button or twister tailed 3" swimbaits or grubs seem to work pretty well and hooking a small shad on the hook is another option that will catch fish. The shad kill has been going on here on Bull Shoals for a week or so and if you pick up a few of the small dying shad to tip the jig & trailer you might catch just about anything. If you find lots of shad in the area you are fishing pick some up but try to move to a cove or creek arm that doesn't have many floating shad. I think that jigs are the best option when you mark fish are on or very near the bottom and not real active. A small jigging spoon will also work if you cast it and work it real slowly along the bottom just like a jig. The fish are picking up small dying shad and will bite a dead sticked jig or spoon. Using small diamiter braid like 6/1 will really help detect when a fish picks up the jig or spoon as the bite can be very light and hard to feel.

[Moswimb8slinger]

in what part of the lake is the shad kill? i fish mainly powersite tailwaters, swan creek, and beaver creek

[Mike Worley]

in what part of the lake is the shad kill? i fish mainly powersite tailwaters, swan creek, and beaver creek

I've been fishing the point 16-20 area mostly and Mountain Creek the last couple of weeks before that the Diamond City area and we have seeing small shad surfacing and floating in all those areas. It's not a big shad kill just a few here and there and the birds are picking most of the floaters up. As of Tuesday we were still seeing them and some coves had a couple of dozen seagulls working on them.