Fishing with Dan – The Shad is Back

October 19, 2024  Well, all good things must come to an end, and my October streak hit a brick wall today while fishing with Dan Blanton. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I was sure we were in for another great day on the water. After three successful days on the lake and Forebay, I was feeling optimistic. But today, fishing was painfully slow. Dan and I only managed to catch eight fish in the Forebay, which was a far cry from just two days ago. I really wanted it to be a stellar day for Dan, but it just didn’t pan out.

There were some factors working against us before we even started. By 9:00, over 35 boats had already launched, and many of the prime spots were packed. I did manage to find a few fish off the beaten path, but it didn’t amount to much. In the back of my mind, I was certain the dam on the lake would turn things around for us.

I was wrong. We fished nearly the entire length of the dam—low and slow—without a single bite. It was the first time in years that I got skunked on the rocks. We did stumble onto a brief blitz of working birds and big stripers in Portuguese Cove, but we only managed to pull one fish from it. I was just too slow getting on top of the school and keeping pace with it.

The only really good thing about the fishing today was the discovery of minnows in the lake and at the dock.  The blitz we witnessed was evidence that there are schools of shad in the lake which is the first time this year i have seen signs of them.   The launch was alive with small half inch  shad  – large clouds of them.   And in Portugese Cove,  especially searching for the lost school of stripers after the blitze,  I could see small shad popping up from the surface almost every where.   In the shallows, I found large pods of tiny minnows with no fish around them.   My guess that the bait has to get to a certain size before stripers blitz on them and right now, most of the bait is too small.   That can only mean that as the bait grows,   there will be more and more surface blitzes in the lake like there is now in the forebay,  Threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) are fast-growing fish, typically reaching about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) in length within their first year of life.  They feed on planktonic organisms and in the Lake specifically on algae which is all over the lake right now from the heat of last month.   Growth rates can vary depending on water temperature, food availability, and other environmental factors, but they generally grow quickly in warm waters. Adult threadfin shad usually reach a maximum length of around 6 inches (15 cm). They have a relatively short lifespan, often living for only 2 to 3 years.   They die off when the water temps get in the mid 40s .  The minnows are back in play and maybe thats why the fish are off the rocks,

After dropping Dan off, I came home and searched the boat, half expecting to find a banana onboard! Today was one of those days where nothing went right. I snapped the Livescope mount off the gunnel ($100 gone), lost a pair of prescription glasses, broke my trolling motor belt mount, and nearly deployed the trolling motor at full speed—twice, broke a camera mount off of my windshield  and missed video of the best blitz on the Lake I’ve witnessed in years, To top it all off, it was the worst fishing day I’ve had on the lake this year. When bad luck hits, it hits hard!

One thought on “Fishing with Dan – The Shad is Back

  1. Never fish that place for at least 4 days after a full moon. It’s always a grind when we think “maybe this time will be different”

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