Great shad kill article

[Fox Statler]

Phil,

Good article. I don't spin fish with shad imitations but I still have some tips on shad kills and fishing them since I was the first fly fisherman to ever successfully catch shad from a boat during highwater.

The best indicator of a good shad kill at any time of the year are the Sea Gulls. The Sea Gulls show up weeks before the kill is seen comming through the generators. If you have a few Sea Gulls, you will have a few shad killed. If you have alot of Sea Gulls, you will have alot of shad killed. Sea Gulls also come for the small summer kills also.

The best type of shad kill fishing is what I call the "dribbling shad kills". These are always better than the "gushing shad kills". Why? Because during a "gushing shad kill" the fish are full in the first three hours of a generation cycle and then don't eat for three or four days. In a "dribbling shad kill" the fish never get completely full so they eat shad at every opportunity.

Shad die when ever the water they are in reaches below 41 degrees. That is why shad kills are seldom seen in the lakes in southern Arkansas and Mississippi and rarely if ever in Louisania and Alabama. This is also the reason the Threadfin shad are not found above Missouri and Kentucky. In these states the winter are too cold and the shad completely die out and there are none left to reproduce the next year. If threadfin did not experience this phenomenon they would replace the Gizszard Shad as the most dominant species of fish in North America.

When shad die they do not settle to the bottom of the lake quickly. Instead they are almost neutral buoyant and remain suspended for several days, weeks and even months. Because of this we have shad coming through the dams for weeks and months. So as the water moves through the lakes to the dam so do the shad. Some live shad are sucked through during generation but the vast majority are already dead. I have personally dip-netted catfish that have come through the dams. They are easy to recognize these fish because their stomachs are blown out of their mouth like a six inch pink balloon. I have also seen six foot gar come through and thousands of Lake Trout.

I don't know about the rest of the dams, but at Bull Shoals and Norfork the blades of the generators are spaced far enough apart that a six foot man could come through the generators without being cut up. When I was a teacher, I took student field trips to the dam every year and that question is always asked by a student.

The using of Sink Tip and Full Sink lines were found to be unpractical during the shad kill in the White River but okay in the dam pool of the Norfork. The problem is the large rocks on the bottom. If the line is cast out to the side of the boat - when it gets to the bottom it will wrap around a rock. If the driver of the boat is not alerted to this, you might loose your whole fly line. I have seen it happen more than once. A large floating fly line (8 to 10 weight) with a heavy leader (10 pound test plus) is best for bottom bouncing. A moderate floating fly line (4 to 7 weight) with moderate leader (6 to 10 pound test) is best for the top water and indicator with a small jig (1/80th oz.) or small Blow-fly and shot. If you really want to test your skills try a 2 weight with 6x tippet and an unweighted Blow-fly. With this rig every fish is a monster.

The most important part of shad kill fishing is not the fly or the rig but matching the speed of the boat to the drift of the method of choice. So every fisherman in the boat fishes the same method. You can't mix bottom bouncing with surface fishing. Slow the boat until it is traveling downstream the same speed as the floating line. Don't out run it or slow the boat so much that the line-indicator-fly or line-fly is downstream of the boat. If you don't have a trolling motor, oars work great - I used them for years.

I found golf balls through the White River, even just above the confluence with the North Fork. When Shad come through some are carried to the confluence on the first eight generator cycle. Lets face it, most trout don't eat the shad at first because they don't recognize them as a food source at first. They have been eating eggs, sculpins, sowbugs, and scuds. They are frightened by the shad. It like this you have been eating baby food all your life and someone puts a sixteen ounce sirloin on your plate. You cry because it scares the hell out of you.

If you are a spin fisherman and you are fishing big chrome-dome jigs that aren't producing, tie a dropper Blow-fly about three foot behind your jig if you are allowed more than one hook. I taught this to some great spin fishing guides and they still say it is their best producer.

Best patterns for fly fisherman. When it was legal below Bull Shoals Dam to use more than one hook, a hook about two inches below a solid white styrofoam indicator about one inch long caught the most exciting fish. Small 1/80th oz. jigs below a styrofoam indicator work well. Black thread Blow-flies with a shot below a styrofoam indicator are also very good producer. New Concept Minnows either floating or slow-descending are my favorite. The strikes are awesome.

[Phil Lilley]

Thanks so much Fox... I took the liberty and added your offering to the article posted on the White River forum and gave you credit and a link to your website.

One question- out of your collection of fly patterns, do you any favorites for this application?

[Terry Beeson]

Fox,

Good information and like Phil, I think this adds a lot to his and John's article.

One question for you and Phil and John. We talk about a "shad kill" and you, Fox, have focused on the shad dying before they come through. But don't some of them survive the trip? Any idea what causes them to get sucked through in the first place? Is it the 41 deg puts them in "suspended animation" as opposed to actually killing them?

Good info on their "range"...

[Don Allenbaugh]

Fox always has excellent information about fishing the White and Norfork and is always willing to share his knowledge. I met Fox several years ago on the Norfork and spent about an hour talking with him. I learned more in that hour about the local waters than I had in the previous 6 years. Keep up the good posts Fox.

[Phil Lilley]

I think they sometime simply get too close to the 'drain' and get sucked in.

[Fox Statler]

To answer some questions.

The Shad actually die at temperatures of 41 degrees and below. That is why they are not found in northern waters like Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and so on.

The only fish in our waters that has the ability to go from 280 feet of water in the lake to 10 feet of water in the river in a couple of seconds is a striper bass. All other species die of the bends. This is what going through the generators is like a tremendous change in pressure.

Understand something as the temperature of the water nears 41 degrees the shad become lethargic and swim very little. They are then carried toward the dam by the current that is created in the lake by the generators. This current in the lake has as much power as the water in the river on the other side of the dam. So whether the shad are dead already or lethargic because of the low temperatures they come through the dam.

My favorite patterns are the Black Thread Blow-Fly (a real easy pattern that even a child can tie) with or without a shot and the Threadfin Shad New Concept Minnow. I developed the New Concept Minnows to imitate topminnows and dead minnows. The New Concept Minnow use round ball styrofoam indicators for eyes. By using small eyes with a large hook ( 1/4 inch eyes with a #1 or #2 Mustad #33909 hook) the pattern slowly descends through the water column. In eight generators they rarely get to the bottom. If you want the pattern to stay on top use a 3/8 inch eyes with a #2 hook. The New Concept Minnows generate the most devastating strike, it is not uncommon to have a 3x tippet broken on the strike. I tie lots of different minnow patterns in the New Concept style. The dead minnows (belly-up ones) will catch smallmouth on the surface even in December. I also tie floating live minnows (belly-down ones) to use for topwater fishing on the surface or with a sinking line over structure like a submerged beaver dam or weed bed or large boulders. The New Concept Minnows were the pattern that I used at the Memphis Bass Pro Store Grand Opening that generated almost fifty stike in one twenty minute demonstration. Incidently, no other fisherman got a strike that day and I am talking about Pro Bass Anglers. The second day, no one would fish the tank because I smoked them so bad, I got thirty-five strikes that day in the twenty minute demonstration. I had a three pound crappie jump out of the tank trying to get the minnow as I was raising it from the tank.

[Terry Beeson]

Thanks, Fox... Good to see you active on this forum...

[Phil Lilley]

Fox- is there any patterns on your site... pics... that I can link from the article?

[Fox Statler]

Phil,

Here is a link to the Threadfin Shad New Concept Minnow Recipe and a picture of the shad completed.

Here is a link to the New Concept Minnow Article on why and how they were developed and fished.

I will have to take a picture of a Black Thread Blow-Fly.

[Guest]

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