Adjust to the Shad for Massive Winter Bass in Southern Reservoirs

February 19, 2022
By Pete Robbins

When you want to expertise inside the passenger seat of Keith Combs’ Ranger inside the colder months, put collectively to attend a while to start casting. It’s not on account of the Texas skilled is late to the ramp, or can’t uncover the boat keys, or obtained’t permit you to fish until he’s caught a few. Considerably, it’s on account of he typically obtained’t start to unstrap the rods from the deck until he’s positioned a school of bass. In some circumstances, it’d even take plenty of schools. Which implies ample seat time staring attentively at his Humminbird electronics. In a best-case scenario, he finds them shortly, nonetheless he’s a disciplined man and he’ll preserve after it as you run out of snacks and persistence.

Really, technically speaking Combs, isn’t attempting notably for bass. He’s looking out for the prey that they reside to eat.

“Throughout the winter, shad have to be on all people’s ideas, better than one other time of the yr,” he said. “The first question it is best to ask your self is, ‘On this a part of the lake, what are the shad doing?’”

He tries to cut down the search course of by taking a quick scan of key areas with the boat on pad. He’ll put the boat on airplane and run over most likely spots – creek channels, foremost lake elements, and the like – using standard 2D sonar (with an in-hull transducer) to take a quick look. When he begins to get some clues, then he’ll decelerate and break up his electronics between down-imaging and side-imaging to dial points in extra. He retains the Aspect Imaging inside the 90- to 100-foot fluctuate, which he feels provides optimum combination of readability and safety.

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What are the clues he’s looking out for? Not merely the sorts of cowl that the baitfish are referring to, however as well as the place they’re inside the water column – up extreme, suspended midway or down nearer to the underside. As quickly as he’s decide that combination, it cuts down the search course of significantly. One caveat, nonetheless, is that baitfish and bass train sometimes change all via the day, so whereas they’re patternable in tandem, it pays to take care of an open ideas.

“I on a regular basis try and preserve inside the a part of the lake with primarily probably the most shad,” he said. “The bass would possibly depart these massive groups after feeding, however it pays to take care of returning to check on them. If you see a ton of shad, even when the bass are normally not there, it’s worthwhile to preserve them honest.”

His lure picks depend upon how deep he desires them to run. If the bass are in decrease than 15 ft of water, on excessive of the shad, he prefers a suspending jerkbait. Within the occasion that they’re holding beneath upper-column shad, he would possibly sling a crankbait at them or crawl an appropriately sized Strike King Rage Swimmer on a lead head. When the shad and bass get beneath 25 ft or so, he prefers a jigging spoon or a Strike King Z-Too, as soon as extra on a jighead. When and if it’s allowed, an Alabama Rig is usually a main choice to load the boat in a rush all through this phenomenon.

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“I stick principally with shad colors, white and chartreuse,” he outlined. “Don’t worry, it’s going to face out. When there are 1,000,000 shad and one lure, it’ll nonetheless get consideration. Moreover, you don’t want to overwork the bait, notably if it’s chilly. The shad obtained’t be transferring an extreme quantity of.”

Whereas matching the hatch rigorously by shade may not be ultra-critical, he said that mimicking the size of the forage sometimes proves vital.

“Spherical proper right here at dwelling, they’re principally 2 1/2 to a few 1/2 inches, so I try to take care of my lures in that measurement fluctuate.”

There are events when Combs locates vigorous fish feeding on shad nonetheless can’t initially get them to chew his hottest decisions. Considerably than depart and hunt for greener pastures, he’ll cycle systematically by way of lures until he finds the one which grabs their consideration.

“Within the occasion that they’re feeding subsurface, preserve attempting. There’s on a regular basis a choice to catch them. As soon as they’re hitting on the ground it can most likely get a little bit of trickier. I imagine sometimes they’re going to see you.

One completely different key pattern this time of yr is to key in on shad die-offs. They don’t happen that normally on the East Texas and South Texas lakes that Combs frequents – although remaining winter launched some when the state iced over—nonetheless even inside the northern part of the state and all via the South and Midwest they’re frequent.

The bass consider the easy pickings and alongside together with his electronics, Combs will use his eyes to hunt out the proof. The shad may be floating, and birds may be working them. He’s found that it’s usually an early morning chew, and it will peter out if the air and ground temperatures climb all through the day.