This time of year always seems like a whirlwind to me. The fish are moving through every stage of the spawn, plus the travel with the college team every other week seems to accelerate time for me! That said, one of the most magical times of the year has snuck upon us. The bass spawn is concluding in a lot of the country, and the shad are starting to spawn. During the shad spawn, you can jumpstart a successful fishing day in a matter of minutes. In this article, we’ll go over the signs that a shad spawn may be happening, my favorite areas to search, and the top baits to use.

The first step in catching fish out of a shad spawn is identifying that there is one happening. Typically, water temperatures at or near 70 degrees can signify that shad will be spawning. You’ll start to see activity when the water first nears this mark, but sustained temperatures in this range after the bass have finished spawning are sure-fire signs that shad are spawning somewhere on your fishery. Another clue is the presence of birds in an area. Blue heron on a point, dock, or other cover can signify the specific areas where baitfish are spawning. In a full-blown shad spawn, you should see or hear shad flipping out of the water on the surface. In these scenarios, the shad are bumping into each other and the cover to help with the rapid release of eggs. Additionally, during these moments, their awareness is lessened and they’re more susceptible to predator species such as bass.

The specific areas to look for a shad spawn change at different stages of the spring but are usually very repeatable. In the early stages of the shad spawn, I tend to find shad in the very backs of pockets and creeks and around black dock floats that hold heat. As the water continues to warm, the best shad spawns drift to points, shoreline vegetation, and eventually to main channel docks and cover. It’s also important to realize that not every shad spawn will have feeding bass. Once you locate the intersection where bass and shad are both present, you can replicate this throughout each section of the lake.

For example, if the last dock in the back of a creek has a productive shad spawn, I have found success by focusing on the last docks in multiple creeks. During the Harris Chain event this spring, almost every patch of Kissimmee grass that had 4-6 feet of water on the front of it had large populations of shad spawning. On colder days, the shad and bass would be on the outer edges, but warmer days would push the bass to the inside grass edge.

Although a few baits certainly stand out above the rest, the best baits to use depends highly on the type of cover that I’m targeting. I will always have a Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO in a shad pattern, a harness swimbait, and a swim jig tied on. I will also mix in a white creature bait if I find shad spawning in thick cover. I view each bait as a tool to accomplish specific jobs. The ChatterBait does a phenomenal job covering water when fishing points, rocks, or vegetation. The swim jig stays in the strike zone a bit longer and typically gets the call around docks, wood, or shallow shoreline vegetation. When bigger shad are spawning, I will mix in a harness swimbait. This bait does a phenomenal job at generating bigger bites around docks or rocks. This spring, I’ve been playing with the Z-Man Swag LT Swimbait and have been impressed with its action. The bait has the head wobble to get bites, won’t blow out at fast speeds, and the hook hanger is secure when skipping the bait.

Over the next month, make sure you’re the first boat at the boat ramp to catch the first crucial hour of activity. You can have some of the best days of the year before other anglers even get their boat launched. This is often the best time to catch bigger than average bass. Keep your eyes peeled for birds, flipping shad, or bass boiling on the surface. Don’t be afraid to pull onto a bank that shows the right characteristics. In just a few minutes, you might have a really solid day of fishing.