Miss and Hit 11-19-25

[Bill Babler]

Neighbor and I launched at Viola at 0700 to surface temps of 61 degrees. 

Found but a smattering of shad and less than a smattering of fish. We basically couldn’t catch a cold in an Elementary School. 

Fished the Kings till 11 am and ended with less than a dozen with one solid keep. All out of piles. 

Where in the Beggebers 10 million shad went I have no idea. 

He had to go in and I was not about taking defeat lightly so I relaunched at H.  


Took about an hour but I lucked into the mama  load of pig K’s. Just wolf pack after wolf pack.  Top of the water column right under shad schools. Yep I found the buffet and it was open. 

Don’t know that I had over 1/2 dozen shorts and to many keeps to count without a clicker. 

1/2 oz. Dixie Jet and 2.8” Keitech did the deed. Biggest at a modest 2.29 but action was Smokin Hot. 

Thumb took a real beating. 

Surface temps at Baxter to Campbell Pt. 63.5. 






 

[DADAKOTA]

Kys are too much fun.

[Dock-in-it]

Bill, regarding your graph picture with surface shad and the associated big K's.

On Nov 14th I got oh the same scenario with magnum K's and could not believe their willingness to bite the 2.8 Keitech. 

So yesterday I return to the same location and the small pods of surface shad had mostly short fish and the shorts would follow my bait (leaving the real thing behind) and they would rarely commit. 

I think when quality fish are feeding at the surface they are more willing to commit. 

 

[Bill Babler]

Agreed. 👍 

if I swam the spoon or the Keitech thru the shad or let it drop thru they were not interested. If I threw past the shad and brought it through the suspended K’s they went nuts over it. 

You would have perhaps thought that dropping it through the shad like an injured shad would have triggered them. 

Nope.