Snagged two gizzard shad!

CAtfish bait!

Hope you had gloves on that you tossed afterward or you washed your hands with gasoline. Must have ran that lipless right through the middle of a school. Good spot to have a lure in the spring and summer.

That's a sweet catch.. I don't suppose you kept them? I sure could use about ten of them.

That's a pretty good sign the bait fish are moving and becoming active. All good signs if you ask me regarding sport fish. Pretty cool

How big (inches) would you say they are?

I would say one was 8 inches the other was about 6

I try to load up on gizzard shad every spring, what pond did they come out of?

Yup, two gizzard shad.
The south pond of Prospect Ponds has a very healthy population of even larger gizzard shad. My personal best being an 11" female.

They do make good cut bait. However, as suggested, handle with gloves. :)

Good catch!!

FS

FishSeal, no kidding about the S Prospect pond...always good to know where those gross catfish lovin slimers are...thanks for the post.

Well these where caught at a different natural area. It's a good find makes me rethink how to fish these ares now that I know there are gizzard shad in them. Fish seal you think they reproduce in the ponds they are in?

Find one shad, you are guaranteed to find thousands more. They are rapid reproducers meaning they lay a crap ton of eggs.

fry those up with peanut oil and a thin coating of flour, lemon pepper, pepper, and a pinch of Old Bay.

Haha Fishdr

@ Marbles…you know *exactly* what I'm talking about. The HPH glide gizzard and the 8" and 6" Bull Shad will be doing some work!

Colorado Bass Man,

Yes, they do successfully spawn in the ponds. :)

FS

The bottom lure is a dead ringer for the gizzards, while the top two, while not quite as aesthetically similar, have worked over many bass in Front Range lakes that are rife with gizzard shad. And now they've got more spots to play!

Fish dr and cmarbles where did you get your gizzard shad swim baits ? I like when I can have a wider selection of lures to get after the bass!

The lowest lure in my picture is a glide gizzard by High Power Herring. You have to order them directly from the maker at:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fish-Atlanta-Guide-Service-High-Power-Swimbaits/219764599744

The other two lures are Bull shad's, made by HPH's main competitor (they are most definitely not friends). You can order those directly from the maker at:
[log in for link]

You can also get Bull Shads at the usual online dealers.

Cool Thanks fish dr. What kind of line and knots are you guys using with these high priced swimbaits?

I throw the smaller Bull Shad on 20 or 25-lb mono. The bigger Bull Shad is thrown on 25-lb mono and the HPH is going to get thrown on 25-lb or 30-lb mono. I use an improved clinch or a Fish-N-Fool knot [log in for link] on the lures (actually, on the Lure Jensen Duo Lock snaps that I clip the lures on with) and I retie a lot.

Ahaha. Nice, except one failed to live I think. It was probably the fish I stumbled upon.. the pond with the small island? It was a massive fish, and to be in that location was interesting to me too. I was at this pond yesterday if it's the same one.

Hi Guys, IF I can answer any questions you might have with my baits (Bull Shad) be glad to be of help to ya..

Mike Bucca
Bull Shad Swimbaits

Mike, thanks for chiming in. You have a cool website. I don't have any rod/reel setups to cast something worth that coin but I'm working on it. Those Bull Shad baits look really good and I've wanted to toss something identical for the wipers around here.

I chimed in to this thread because the shad in that pond was kind of a surprise. Normally I see them cruising, dead around shore, or schooling around the surface so the dead on I saw was the first in this pond and especially so large. We had a flood that might had displaced and replaced a lot of life in this area so I was chalking that dead fish up to washing in from a different location and then failing to survive.