I put in at Ramp 4 around 9 AM and fished until 2:30 when nearly all my gizzards were gone. I’m not sure how many keepers I caught, because I lost count at 12. All fish were caught in 18-29 feet of water on boards, cork, and downrod. While, I was letting the bait well drain at the end of the day, I decided to jerk the perch spoon in 24 feet of water; however, not being able to keep the 22 inch stripers off the Berry, I only managed 2 perch in half an hour.
Below are the fish kept. The smallest is 23 inches with the biggest 29. I released several that were 27-30 inches+. While I will not say exactly where I fished, I will say I only burned a gallon or 2 of gas.
It’s just short for “gizzard shad.” We fish them just like any other bait fish. David, the bait man, had a load of 3-5 inchers from Lake Cherokee, Tennessee. They can get up to a couple of pounds, and anglers who are targeting strictly trophy-sized fish use bait of that size on heavier setups. This time of year, the baby gizzards are known by many as “striper candy.”
Gizzards=Striper candy…caught these yesterday! Had to open the net twice boat side to let some out in order to lift the net in the boat…I would rather fish a 10-12" gizzard hoping for a big bite than catch 30 5-7# all day
“All fisherman lie. And if they say otherwise, then they’re lying”
I managed to pick up a few in the same vicinity. I had to get my bait from a different source Saturday morning and I don’t know if it was the ride from McCormick to #4 or if it was the large gizzards mixed in with the blue backs but my herring didn’t do to well. They were very lazy blue backs and I lost a few dozen by noon. I normally don’t lose any bait but Saturday was a massacre. The bad thing is I was wearing them out after the cloud cover cleared and the sun broke out… It was fun I had a good time so that’s all that matters.
The herring do get stressed out when held in a tank with larger baits but the die off is usually a gradual thing. If I mix them at home in a 300 gallon tank, the herring will die like 4 or 5 a day until they’re about gone, but not all at once from stress…If they go belly up in a day, I’d say ammonia or scales in the water from over crowding was the culprit…or an accidental chemical or stray electric current…
Team Shad Up & Fish
If you’ve had fun catching fish on the transom bait, you are welcome…
I’ve spent about 85% of my life’s wages on fishing, the rest I just wasted…
