Weekend SK area

[SKMO]

Fished with a buddy Sun afternoon around SK. Did the deep water thing in the mouths of coves and found shad in the first two places we checked. Gulls tipped me off to one location which I would not have fished otherwise. Other location has been holding shad for several weeks.

Struggled to catch maybe 8 in these two spots over a couple hours, with one keeper. All KYs. Then went looking for greener pastures with similar shad that might be more productive. Checked about 6 other cove mouths and inside coves with zero shad or success. So wasted quite a bit of time on a shad hunt.

Fished the end of a big gravel flat in 62' of water and popped 3 real quick when I found some shad around a brushpile. One keeper.

Had 30 minutes left and went back to cove#2 where we had left a big concentration of shad and caught 4 more with 2 keepers.

Final tally 15 fish with 4 keepers. All Ky's. Caught on smoke grub and big tubes. Would not bite a spoon or a dropshot. At least not for us.

The shad we found were huge concentrations and very easy to stay on, but I was not seeing a lot of large fish roaming around them. All in about 60-65' of water. In the guts of coves, and in the one instance on a main lake flat. When you find them they will light up your screen. About half the time my depthfinder was telling me I was in 40' of water when I was actually in 60-70, they were that thick.

Water temp was around 49.

I think I made a mistake ever leaving the huge concentrations looking for something better. Probably better to bob around working where you know there is baitfish and begging for the occaisional bass and hoping something will turn on big time.

Talked w/some guys who were catching some shorts shallow on jigs, and one guy who had caught a couple real nice fish in shallow on a stickbait.