My last trip to my favorite lake I saw huge schools of shads.  I also saw many good sized fish feasting on them.  We threw many lures and only caught a few small ones on a rat l'trap. Does anyone have any suggested lures to catch some of these fish.  I tried everything in my box. I tried fishing through them above them under them and them bottom under them.

Try some 5-6" swimmbaits. Fish them trough the schools of shad with a stop and go retrieve.

Something like this should work:

Evergreen Seadrive

My last trip to my favorite lake I saw huge schools of shads. I also saw many good sized fish feasting on them. We threw many lures and only caught a few small ones on a rat l'trap. Does anyone have any suggested lures to catch some of these fish. I tried everything in my box. I tried fishing through them above them under them and them bottom under them.

I see this a lot in my lake as well. What I usually do follows:

What size are the shad? Match the shad size with a rattletrap in chrome. Vary your retrieve and keep it just below the school of shad. My best hits usually come right after I give it a good jerk on the retrieve. Around here it's usually white bass and maybe hybrids eating them. White bass don't run very big (MO state record is less than 5.5#), but they do make a big noise.

A couple of other options:

Increase the rattletrap size to keep the smallest ones off

Try a 6" fluke, weightless

Zara Super Spook or Rebel Jumpin' Minnow in a light color. Walk them FAST. If it's hybrids, get ready for a good fight

Sassy shads (2-6" depending on the shad size) on a jig head (1/16 to 1/2 depending on sassy size). With or without safety pin spinner added

Rapala Countdown matched to shad size

Inline spinner

One of the biggest things is to match the shad size. You have to make the fish think it's part of the school that's been injured.

Depending on water depth and size of the shad I like a DD14 or a Bandit 300 series.  White with black or grey is my best color.  Good for fish relating to schools of shad in water to maybe 25-30 feet deep.  Sometimes a drop shot fished below the school pays off too.  I like a GYCB flat tail worm for that.  big