Kim City - Feb 13 - the bass & shad are on the move

[Dock-in-it]

I fished in the morning on Friday the 13th and finally found some bait/fish in 2 locations. The 1st location was a timbered cove off the main lake that was loaded with big schools of shad. But the fish were not relating to the big schools, the fish preferred small pods of shad fairly close to the surface.  I seen fish in 15-70 FOW and utilized a 2.8 Keitech to catch about 3 keepers. This area also had a few loons and gulls.

The 2nd location was also a cove off the main lake and had limited shad and some minor pole timber. I had 3 more keepers on a Keitech at this location. 

The big concentrations of fish seem to be disbursing and you have to search multiple locations. 

The LM pictured below was within 100ft of hugh schools of shad in 60 FOW, but was caught in 20 FOW just swimming parallel to the bank thru timber.

WT 46.5 - 48

[Quillback]

See any shad kill?  There was a bit of a kill going on up the lake a few days ago.

[Dock-in-it]

I have not seen any signs of a shad kill going on. The longterm weather forecast looks fairly mild, so the shad will probably have a minor impact from cold water temps.

 

 

[cheesemaster]

On 2/15/2026 at 4:04 AM, Quillback said:

See any shad kill?  There was a bit of a kill going on up the lake a few days ago.

There were a few floating shad up the James near Cape Fair last weekend - not many though.