Keys to the Shad Spawn in North Alabama

Keys to the Shad Spawn

There is no time of year that is more fun than the season that has become known as the shad spawn; it’s a spring occurrence that every year I personally look forward to. The bass are as active as you will find them at any time of the year; they’re healed up from their spawn they are chasing and extremely aggressive; there are however some important keys to being successful during the shad spawn.

Let’s first explain the shad spawn, it when the bait fish known as shad, spawn out for the first time each year. When this occurs, the bass becomes very aggressive, they chase and react to movement in the water and feed very aggressively. The first key to this is finding the shad spawn on your lake; and in order to verify this is occurring you must be able to see the shad chasing your bait and the best way to do that is to fish the shad spawn at first light. You can actually see the shad follow your bait back to the boat, you’ll notice them follow bait like spinner baits or bladed jigs as you pull it over flats. You can’t miss it if you just keep your eyes on the water. You will also notice it when you get bitten as you will get a very aggressive strike on your bait that can’t be missed as your pole will almost get pulled out of your grip. Another key will be the action on top water will increase greatly; you will notice the bass busting on top as they chase the natural shad and feed with a vengeance. As you might expect it is also a good time to fish for a top water bait especially walking bait over and around the areas you see the busting or chasing of the shad.