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All shad no bass?

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striperfly

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I've been fishing some south shore beaches and inlets and the water is filthy with shad. They're hitting teasers if you find them but there aren't any bass on them. It seems like if there are shad, there are no bass and if there are bass, there are no shad, which doesn't make any sense at all. What am I missing here? Tide, time, bad luck? It's making me crazy!

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I have been catching tons of stripers for the last few days. The fish are all over the place right now chasing rain bait,bunker, snapper and who knows what else? This started last Wednesday and this morning a forty fish catch was no big deal.

You just have to walk and find them or know someone who tips you off.

 

It's frustrating, as more than 70% of the time you'll miss them. You'll be one place with nothing happening and half a mile up the beach the fish will be thick as thieves. However,once you find them within casting distance,it's a slaughter.

It may take you a few hours of searching before you see them.

 

Just keep trying, they'll be there eventually.

Any chance that some of the shad you are seeing at some of these beaches might instead be albies?

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Never seen shad this thick before, was watching them flip around like bunker, casted a snag hook out, had a shad hit it. Full on attempt to eat the snag hook, Switched over to a little deadly dick and had some fun for a little while

(member formerly known as 'YoungBasser')

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Ummmm.....if I were an opportunistic-feeder, a predator...

...doesn't it make sense that I would order whatever is on the menu?

 

Lots of Shad? To me, that's way better than lots of nothing!

Try livelining one. Try chunking one.

I suppose you could find a plug that imitates one...

...but my experience is that if there is a LOT of bait in the water, this is a low-percentage return.

><))))))))))@>
*AMMODYTE*

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While I haven't generally caught a large quantity of stripers when shad was the exclusive bait, I have had some very hefty bass when this large bait was present. I have used x-raps and poppers with good results. Also the yozuri darter caught when shad was around. And even the 5 inch storm wild eye in bunker color caught some nice fish with the shad in the water.

Also the larger sized Kast masters have worked well when the big bait was prevalent.

 

How large were the shad that you caught on the teaser? You might as well try some super large plugs,too. Nothing to lose.

 

It's most likely that the bass haven't reached you yet----but they are coming your way.

The fish have been for me the last few sessions mostly 25" fish If you catch forty,then 10 would be basically 10lb keeper sized, to 14 lbs.

 

So it might be that the bass up your way right now are mostly schoolies and perhaps they have been somewhat shy about hitting the large shad? Who knows?

 

The question is what plugs have you been throwing,that they are refusing?

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These shad are pretty big. 12" at least. Some 16" or so. I've thrown the usual, buck tails, SP, bottles, darters, bombers. The handful of bass I've taken have hit teasers ahead of any from those choices, but its almost if I pick a shad instead of a bass i'm guaranteed to not see a bass and vice versa.

 

I have some big stuff to throw, I'll give that a shot. There has to be a cow lurking out there!

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I rarely recommend this, but try fishing a HUGE POPPER at or just before it is daybreak. However, this probably wont work in an inlet rip....

 

The old HUGE yozuri surface bulls are perfect for this application, I don't care much for pencil poppers.

 

At night when the shad are around I focus on using big conrads, no longer made unfortunately. Using up an old stock of pichneys and made a few from ****** (the ****** swim very well). The small conrads available don't offer the same profile. Only problem is they are a BEAST to cast at 4+ oz rigged.

 

If you are hooking the shads on teasers, you should be livelining one - at the very least chunking with a BIG piece.

 

I should mention, I really only fish inlets, and only under cover of darkness. Just TOOOOOOOO many guys during the day.

 

JC

...where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.
---------------------------------------------
Thomas Gray (1742)
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While I haven't generally caught a large quantity of stripers when shad was the exclusive bait, I have had some very hefty bass when this large bait was present. I have used x-raps and poppers with good results. Also the yozuri darter caught when shad was around. And even the 5 inch storm wild eye in bunker color caught some nice fish with the shad in the water.

Also the larger sized Kast masters have worked well when the big bait was prevalent.

 

How large were the shad that you caught on the teaser? You might as well try some super large plugs,too. Nothing to lose.

 

It's most likely that the bass haven't reached you yet----but they are coming your way.

The fish have been for me the last few sessions mostly 25" fish If you catch forty,then 10 would be basically 10lb keeper sized, to 14 lbs.

 

So it might be that the bass up your way right now are mostly schoolies and perhaps they have been somewhat shy about hitting the large shad? Who knows?

 

The question is what plugs have you been throwing,that they are refusing?

 

The shad really made my day today, but this post is making me groan a bit. I was walking down the beach fully intending to go right to the inlet unless I saw something interesting. I caught a glimpse of something splashing, cast to it and had a nice 22" schoolie on the first cast. After that it was pretty consistent 20-22" schoolies and 14-15" shad for 30 minutes at a time wherever the shad were jumping and when they were it was thick. It was my first time with that kind of action so I was pretty damn happy but I wondered if there were bigger striper chasing the shad and switched to a bottle after four schoolies. But the waves were rolling in really fast by then with a thunderstorm passing just offshore so the only way to keep the bottle in productive water for any length of time was to cast just behind the breaking wave. I'm still pretty green so that kind of accuracy was a challenge and every other cast was back on the beach in no time when I missed the mark. Anyway, I switched off the bottle plug pretty quickly to chase the schoolies with a tin and, when the wind was quieter or the shad closer in, a sinking SP but I wonder if I missed a shot at bigger fish. I have no idea what the shad and schoolies we're eating ... I didn't see or snag any baitfish. I'd assume the same thing but all the striper hit the larger lure and and every shad was on a white red gill teaser. Either way, I was pretty happy to have the shad put me on some schoolies action and they were a lot of fun too. I bet they'd be a blast on a fly rod. The most frustrating part of the day was a 15 minute stretch when there were shad popping all over and I was getting bumped like crazy on every cast but without a single hook up. I guess the bass were off the feed already because shortly after it went dead quiet for about an hour.

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