Back on shad

[Johnson Guide Service]

Thought after viewing for so long and not posting since the old SAM KAM vidio days was time to maybe make a few more friends and put in some input on shad. I  have learned shad caught in water above 72 degrees dont have a survival rate as good as below 72, but if you baby them some will survive as long as 3 months with no food and with water temps where they are at now in the 50ss i have about a 98 % survival rate. Tranquill is a big help. Hook line and sinker used to sell or do a google to find out how to get. Dont use as says for transport but knock out. Runs about $180 a gallon but heres what i do and a gallon will last about a year. I  put about 1/2 teaspoon in a 18 qt ice chest with about 4 gals of water. start with just a little. When you net your shad, even if you have 50  6 inch baits in 1 throw. drop all in this mix. corners dont matter when knocking out. if they dont go to sleep in less then a minute squirt a little more. I just carry a little 8 oz bottle on boat that can squirt. After knocking out you have about 3 minutes to put in your boat tank with fresh water and your salt mix before the might die. . I use water from the house ( no bacteria from the start ) cooled below 72 in summer or close to lake temp when cooler.. I use a liquid declornizer. and about 3/4  cup of water softner salt mixed in with 1/4 cup of the Aqua Haul because thats not cheep. STRESS KILLS, knock out , put in tank about 1 shad per gal, can cull out ones with lost scales or wounds. when moving over.. in cooler watetr you can keep a few more. These temps now i would feel safe with 40 five to 7 inch shad in a 30 gal tank. I have a 100 gal stock tank with a drip filter made out of a 3 gallon bucket and two 360 rule pumps with 1/4 inch holes and the old egg crate bedding cut to fit that filter bucket you can re use by rinsing out, but on a bait run i carry extra and might go through 5 in 2 hrs before i get home. I also bring home the 4 gals of drug water and use to unload. dont net too many at a time while 1 pump is draining tank I move to a 300 gal tank in yard with about 6 gals of the salt mix, same as boat mix. do water changes of abour 1/3rd first 3 days pulling of the bottom. The water i add i dont put no salt mix in so slowley getting away from salt as scales harden. I still keep this 4 gals of drug water. cool if have too so can get close to lake and boat tank temps. drug goes soft after about a week but 1/2 teaspoon got me 150 shad and loaded up 30 baits to put bait back in boat in a 30 gal tank for 3 or 4 outings. I do the same mix on salt when on boat but yard tank might even do another change after a week because the salt is hard on them if holding. keep bait close to lake temps but never above 72 or 74. in the heat of summer get down below thermocline fast into cooler water. Keep looking at bait close daily and even if swiming good throw out any that are growing fungis near tail or on body due to scale lose or wounds or can infect all. My yard tank cost $50. 50 gal filter barrel $20, pump $85, insulation $20. My yard tank is a big plastic tank like you see all over with the place with the metal bars. I filter into a 50 gal barrel that the 2 inch pvc comes up from the bottom into a 3 gal filter bucket that drips down inside the barrel and a 1200 gph pump takes it back to the main tank. no spray bars anywhere just whatever you have that you can put holes in to drip out. I did get lucky by having a fishing buddy that was in the air conditioner bussiness that set me up with a window unit that has 50 feet of copper tuping cooling the filter barrel. without this and good insulation most use 2 liter bottles of ice. In thE winter i just have a 50 gal aqr heater in the big tank and might run a 10 gal in the 30 gal boat tank. if too cold heat up with hot water and declornizer or boil the mix already on boat 30 gal tank a gal at a time till where you want it. After about 2 months old and getting skinny some mossy rocks from the creek can keep them going longer or even netting about 50 fresh shad to mix in can give them some waste to survive on. No matter how long i have bait i dont leave on boat. I load fresh in the morning and always load and unload with the drug. Hope i was of a little help. my tank is cheep and primitive but has done well for 15 years now. I also believe bait that is hardened like this wont die on the hook as fast.. We took 30 big shad Wed. caught 3 good stripers.,Bass killed 5. Shad that was not hit i put back in boat, unloaded 19 when home. had 2 die next day due to scale lose. Remaining 17 happy, happy swiming with remaining 70 in big tank I got 3 weeks ago out of 150 netted and 5 fishing trips. Cant find pics of yard tank but if anybody interested would be happy to share more.. some people might not be happy me sharing some of this info but you all have helped me over the years with what you have had to say. now im close to 60 and my bills get paid.   most here are catching and helping others, this here is for the ones fishing but not catching. No one owns this lake and the few that think they do dont like me anyways or have never shared any info to help me over these years. share the lake, share some info and make some memories if you can and most of all help a kid along the way to not loose what was passed down to us. Stay safe. Respect others and dont spook the fish. See ya on the water and please dont wake me too much and i shell wave as you go by.

[Dan the fisherman]

Wow. Great info. Thank u for sharing 

[Green236]

JGS, that's similar to what I used to do when I did nothing but chase bait and fish for stripers. 

I had a 200 gallon zero milk tank in my back yard with a homemade offset garbage can filter system and aireator. I could easily keep shad healthy for several months during the colder months. 

All I used was water softening salt, better bait, and foam off. I changed a third of the tank out about every other week. 

For fishing, I'd load 20 shad in my 20 gallon blue water shad tank. Those that weren't used would go back in the 200 gal tank. Also, the healthy ones that I trolled went back to the big tank. 

I had about as much fun fooling with shad as I did catching stripers.  Lee Winkler was my mentor. I pretty much copied his system. 

[bfishn]

"Shad is my friend".  I used to make anybody that fished with me repeat that phrase 3 times before we went. There were several resulting funny stories there, but I digress... 

The best setup I've seen was near Hot Springs, AR.  A 250x100' metal shop right on the highway. It was originally built for a bait distributor, where the farmers sent their minnows for grading and distribution. It had 12 - 500 gal concrete tanks , fully plumbed for circulation, fill, and drain. The place sits on a shallow well that can continuously yield 200 gpm of 58 degree spring water. No need for chemicals.  There was a 12' aisle down the middle with shop doors on both ends for drive-thru loading and unloading.

They built their own bait rig and ran it to the AR river 3 or 4 days a week for bait. Made from 1/4" aluminum plate, 9x22 with two 400 gallon plumbed & aerated wells. It was a load for even the 1 ton truck they pulled it with when it was full. The bait crew were all gorillas straight out of Deliverance and had to be paid daily in cash, but they delivered the goods, rain or shine.

The guy ran 4-5 striper guide boats from there. You could park 2 full rigs inside and work out of the weather and leave them in overnight. They caught a lot of big fish with a lot of lucky people. I've told this in the past tense, but they may still be in business, I don't know.

[Champ188]

The two guides involved in that operation were Larry Cooper and John T. Hall. I don't believe Cooper is guiding anymore. Could be wrong.

Hall is still guiding but I don't think he's working out of that building on Hwy 270 anymore.

[bfishn]

That'd  be them. I knew Larry "Hey Goob!" better of the 2. Quite the characters.

[Johnson Guide Service]

Hey guys, nice hearing from you. Knew Lee well too. Bought his 19 foot tracker and ran 5 years till i got my Kenner. Thanks for input. and Dan thanks for sharing. was in Monta A with you a couple days ago. Droped the weights and got my guy on 3 good fish. had to get away from the launch area due to small bass killing our bait. I think. I was in the blue kenner. Had to come back in to show pics of yard tank, kinda ugly and old. you can see how shes leaning over the years but bait still likes.. Just got me a 250 gal tank that will be taking its place this spring. will be down between 12 bridge and Hickory for a day with my girl and hoping to head back home with fish and more bait . Heres pics. of tank, makes me laugh. but wooks. be pretty again before summer and back leval. dont know how 2 inch pvc  between barrels is holding together.leaning the way it is. Oops pics still in phone, will get in later today. Enjoy this weather today.. Forcast looks good to me about all of December. 

[Johnson Guide Service]

Kinda ugly but gets er done. Grean I kinda got away from foam out and usally clears off with a little non dairy coffy creamer. Had a guy tell me a couple years back that he was out with a guide in another state and there was a bag of doretos laying out so he ate some. said they were pretty stale. then the guide turned around and informed him they were for getting the foam out, said just drop a couple in tank and all gone. Never tried myself .  Also I dont have much of a problem needing to do any more water changes after the 3rd or 4th day if get most the salt out the water stays pretty clean with the poop gone.

[Dan the fisherman]

4 hours ago, Johnson Guide Service said:

Hey guys, nice hearing from you. Knew Lee well too. Bought his 19 foot tracker and ran 5 years till i got my Kenner. Thanks for input. and Dan thanks for sharing. was in Monta A with you a couple days ago. Droped the weights and got my guy on 3 good fish. had to get away from the launch area due to small bass killing our bait. I think. I was in the blue kenner. Had to come back in to show pics of yard tank, kinda ugly and old. you can see how shes leaning over the years but bait still likes.. Just got me a 250 gal tank that will be taking its place this spring. will be down between 12 bridge and Hickory for a day with my girl and hoping to head back home with fish and more bait . Heres pics. of tank, makes me laugh. but wooks. be pretty again before summer and back leval. dont know how 2 inch pvc  between barrels is holding together.leaning the way it is. Oops pics still in phone, will get in later today. Enjoy this weather today.. Forcast looks good to me about all of December. 

Ur welcome. glad u got into them ??

[Samkam1]

more videos to come from this last week of fishin!

 

great info Robert!

SK