Shad - Hybrids - O3

[Wahoo61]

My number is 8165225063 give me a call sometime love to hook up

[DerekB]

Derek check out videos on YouTube search for thewipersniper all one word. Jack vanderpool is a guide at Truman and he slays the wipers. Might be worth the money to book a trip with him and learn how to do it. He is a really nice guy. Website is www.jackvanderpoolguide.com. I am going to book a trip with him to see if he can teach me a thing or two. He basically fishes like bird watcher and I do

Wahoo, thanks for the info. I've heard of Jack, but never met him. I've certainly toyed with the idea of hiring him to learn the basics. If you're serious about booking a trip with him and don't have anyone else going, maybe we could split the cost. I think the rate is for two people. Let me know.

[Wahoo61]

Derek, I would love to, but it will probably be next year. I talked to him earlier today and I think he said he is booked through September. Fishing with live shad is really not that hard. The hard part is catching the bait, and then finding the Wipers. There are a lot of days when you have bait, but cannot find the fish. Other days, you know where the fish are and cannot find the bait. The reason I started this thread or topic was to try to get everybody to chime in when and where they find the right sized bait. If the bait is too big, you can get bit, but you cannot get hooked up because you never get the hook where you need it. We usually hook the shad through the nose. Next time I cannot find anything but large bait I might play around with a treble hook trailer hooked mid back or something. I am still learning the lake in terms of spots. I know all the general spots and have generally figured out G4, O3, the airport and the cemetery, but I don't have enough trips in on some of them to have spots marked that are better than the general areas in some of those spots. I have not figured out KK island at all. Then factor in wind and current generation and you get even more variables. You get the picture. All I know is that when you get on them with enough right sized bait, it is worth all the effort and the trips where you only catch a few. Feel free to call me anytime. Maybe we can get together and fish. Tight Lines!!!!!

[Bird Watcher]

Fishing with live shad is really not that hard. The hard part is catching the bait, and then finding the Wipers. There are a lot of days when you have bait, but cannot find the fish. Other days, you know where the fish are and cannot find the bait.

This definitely. Some of my most trying days are days that I know where the fish are and I just can't catch bait to fish for them. I tell everyone, you better have just as much fun catching shad and keeping them alive better be just as rewarding to you as catching hybrids because most of the time, the hybrids don't happen until you have the shad. There's exceptions for sure and everyone has had days where you can catch them on anything, but day in, day out, you better have some perfect size lively shad if you want to get bit. The actual fishing isn't that hard, the catching bait is where you pay dues.

If the bait is too big, you can get bit, but you cannot get hooked up because you never get the hook where you need it. We usually hook the shad through the nose. Next time I cannot find anything but large bait I might play around with a treble hook trailer hooked mid back or something.

It's funny you brought that up. I just tied up a bunch of stinger rigs this week.

I am still learning the lake in terms of spots. I know all the general spots and have generally figured out G4, O3, the airport and the cemetery, but I don't have enough trips in on some of them to have spots marked that are better than the general areas in some of those spots. I have not figured out KK island at all. Then factor in wind and current generation and you get even more variables. You get the picture.

I'm right there with you. Sometimes though, I don't know if it gets any better than a general area with the way those fish move around.

All I know is that when you get on them with enough right sized bait, it is worth all the effort and the trips where you only catch a few. Feel free to call me anytime. Maybe we can get together and fish. Tight Lines!!!!!

Could not agree more with this.

I left you a voicemail Wahoo.

[Hog Wally]

This by far is some of the best stuff I've read on the forum. Even though I can't be there it is good to get real time info on the best fishing lake in Missouri ! Yes it is. Truman rules!

[DerekB]

Great feedback, guys, really appreciate it. I'm heading down tonight and will be up early to try and net some bait. I'm fishing with a friend who has a boat with a good baitwell, as my bass boat isn't really made for hybrid fishing. I wish I'd bought a bigger cast net, I went with a 5-footer thinking I'd need some practice throwing it and I'm actually better than I thought I'd be.

If we can't get the right bait or the bite isn't on, we'll just cut them up and go fishing for cats :-)

[DerekB]

I'll let you know how it is this weekend, but we've had good luck finding 4-5 inch shad just east of KK island (Turpin?).

[Wahoo61]

Derek, if you don't have a round bait tank with filtration you are probably wasting your time. I have never heard of anyone keeping them alive in your normal square corned live well in a boat. The challenge in the summer is usually keeping the bait alive long enough to fish for them. This summer it is finding them along with keeping them alive.

Birdwatcher, saw I missed your call. I will try to call you tonight.

[Bird Watcher]

Really tough day for us Yesterday. Launched at 7:45, finally caught enough shad to fish about 1 pm. Yikes! Thanks DerekB for the tip. We finally went to the back of Turpin and Just started throwing the net. Caught 60 shad in about 2.5 hrs. Went looking for hybrids. First stop, marked a school, caught 4 within 10 minutes. Thought it was going to be good day. Didn't catch another fish until 7:30 when they started surfacing. They stayed up for about 15 minutes and we chased them around to catch another 5 or 6. We did catch some nice blues up to about 15#, so it wasn't exactly a skunk. It was just the toughest day I've had at Truman. That being said, it still fishes better than Grand Lake in Oklahoma. At least for hybrids it does.

[DerekB]

We thought the weather might impact the hybrid fishing, so we bought some minnows and tried the crappie on Saturday. I was able to come away with 13, but it was hard work, having to catch 1 or 2 and move on. Ended up not fishing yesterday because I took my boat in for service on Saturday afternoon and probably won't get it back until Thursday or Friday.