Shad Kill ? Oh yes indeed.

[evilcatfish]

On 2/21/2021 at 8:10 AM, Champ188 said:

Here is my 2 cents worth on the shad kill --- from a totally different perspective than Babler. 

The older members here know that I'm a skinny-water guy (not to be mistaken with a skinny guy, which I'm not  ). For years now, and for multiple reasons, Table Rock bass have been living more and more offshore. And why not? There have been shad by the truckload swimming around in the middle of the lake. The spots do this by nature, but I believe a lot of the LM have joined them. Smallmouth seem to be everywhere but they are their own species.

With fewer shad out there to gorge on, my hope is that some of the green fish (LM) will go back to their former shallow, structure/cover type areas and get back to hunting perch and crawfish. And when I say shallow, I mean 25-30 feet and in. 

I doubt this shad kill will mean curtains for offshore fishing. You guys with live scope, spot lock and all the other toys will be fine ... plenty of fish left out there for you and I really doubt the shad population is going to take a long-term hit. But I do believe this could put some fish back in shallower areas where old dummies like me can catch one every now and then.

I appreciate that we have all sorts of anglers here and some very good ones at every style of fishing.

Best of luck of 2021!!! 

Interesting perspective.  I hadn't thought about it this way, but it definitely makes sense 

[curtisce]

I'm on Padre Island and they have had a mullet kill. On the beach the tide line is covered with hardhead catfish as well

[curtisce]

Things went from bad to worse. Went out with a guide for sea trout and redfish. Once out in the bay the water was covered with dead Sea trout. Seems like the bigger one took the hit. Didn't see that many under 15". Lots of trophy ones This fishery may take years to recover  Hope LA wasn't affected this bad

[gotmuddy]

17 hours ago, curtisce said:

Things went from bad to worse. Went out with a guide for sea trout and redfish. Once out in the bay the water was covered with dead Sea trout. Seems like the bigger one took the hit. Didn't see that many under 15". Lots of trophy ones This fishery may take years to recover  Hope LA wasn't affected this bad

Its like that up and down the texas coast.  Its real bad.

[Dock-in-it]

Did a little scouting this morning to find some thick balls of shad (hoping to find feeding bass). 

The first picture is fairly shallow (28ft) and a very thick group of shad. There was a moderate shad kill taking place. I stopped the boat at 28ft and the thick shad extended much shallower.

The second picture is a little deeper in the same area and the shad are more scattered and I did not see much of a shad kill in the deeper water.

WT approx 42.5 (the first picture indicates 43.2, but I just put the motor down).

 

[vernon]

I really wish those things came with little labels and arrows stating what each thing on the screen actually was.

Would take a lot of the dumb out of us dummies......🤨

[Macsimus]

Dock, I just can't understand how you can catch 'em without 9K of electronics on your bow. j/k. I enjoy your posts. 

[curtisce]

On 2/25/2021 at 9:15 AM, gotmuddy said:

Its like that up and down the texas coast.  Its real 

[Dock-in-it]

1 hour ago, Macsimus said:

Dock, I just can't understand how you can catch 'em without 9K of electronics on your bow. j/k. I enjoy your posts. 

Macsimus, thanks for the feedback. Today's technology is great and very effective in being efficient with your time on the water. I have decided to keep using the old school graph until it stops working. I have lots of hrs and gas money tied up in Table Rock, so that offsets any urgent need to upgrade electronics. I actually like finding and catching fish with the basic sonar. I was on a friend's dock a few days ago and a fisherman pulled up and I asked how many keepers he had. He said 3 and I said I had 3 this morning as well. He said what kind of graph do you have and I said the RB-100 (Randy Blaukat). He had forward facing.