Biggest Spotted Bass I've ever seen but I didn't catch him....Well actually I did, but not with hook and line. Caught him in my CAST NET! That's right! Caught this lunker, as well as about twenty more tossing my net for Shad! Strange ending to a fun trip.

     As many of you know, I carry one or two 55 Gallon plastic barrels with me to try to catch Shad at the end of my fishing adventures. Saturday was no different. I floated the Tennessee, and caught about a dozen including a 2-11 Spot and a 2-9 Smallie. Well, Sunday before last, I found the mother of the motherload of Shad along a section of wall below Nickajack dam. My livescope screen goes from scattered fish to total coverage in this certain section, and as inept as I am tossing a cast net, I still manage to load the barrels for the trip home. The water is 14' deep at this point, but a little farther along, it rises to 9' and my first toss over the 9' shelf resulted in the following.......One slab Crappie, Two monster White Bass, and four Spots between 2 and 3 lbs. I kid you not! 2nd, third, fourth tosses, similar results. Loaded with game fish. I would toss the net, and watch it travel to the bottom on livescope through the clouds of Shad, give her a tug, feel the weight and pull up a load of fish. I caught over twenty smallies and spots between two and three, and the monster Spot which weighed 3-15 on my scale. ( I thought closer to five, but scales don't lie....do they?) Anyway, unfortunately this activity did not go unnoticed as there were several boats nearby with exclamations such as (DAD GUM!!! Didge you see what that ol'e boy just threw back!).  As much as I wanted to actually fish for them in this incredible spot, I had to skedaddle back to Christiana before the Shad began their mass suicide. BUT......I will be revisiting soon with my Damiki Vault, and Silver Buddy!

     As you can see in the picture, these fish are very well fed. One fella was telling me that they were full of eggs. I told him that spots and smallies were spawned out this time of year. These bellies were full of Shad! The gamefish concentrations are beyond belief because I rarely have a good toss and even with half open nets, I was pulling them in every cast. Now I know what lots of fish do after spawn. They go to the Motherload!

7 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

I would toss the net, and watch it travel to the bottom on livescope through the clouds of Shad, give her a tug, feel the weight and pull up a load of fish.

 

Bob, that sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

8 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

DAD GUM!!! Didge you see what that ol'e boy just threw back!

 

This sounds like my former fishing life on big water in the Midwest, where other anglers would see what I was catching and park beside me. I even had some boats troll around me, again and again and again. 

31 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Bob, that sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

 

This sounds like my former fishing life on big water in the Midwest, where other anglers would see what I was catching and park beside me. I even had some boats troll around me, again and again and again. 

     I was having a blast but other boats started crowding me. Also, I was pressured to get home with my Shad but I will try to leave work early Wednesday and see if i can catch any with spoons and other bottom bumpers. The bass would get their gill covers stuck in the net and it was difficult freeing them. Also, I had to dump the net contents into a barrel to separate the Shad from the gamefish. Then I had to dip net the barrels until I got all the gamefish. Just another reminder that I have NOT seen it all yet!

Pretty funny! I got a sturgeon and a 2 foot walleye in a cast net once, the walleye was a heartbreaker to release haha. The worst in when you get like 6 carp in a single throw, totally destroyed 

asking because i am clueless.  what do you do with the shad?  freeze them for bait?

@Darth-Baiter, Bob feeds them to his pond bass but I freeze them sometimes and smallies love them . The only problem is hiding them from my wife in the freezer.

I caught a muskie last November. 37" if I remember right. I really screwed up by laying it on the deck for a pic. The fish went ballistic and the net is still a tangled mess. I'm gonna have to lay it out in the yard one day and sort it out. 🤦‍♂️

22 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

asking because i am clueless.  what do you do with the shad?  freeze them for bait?

TnRiver46 nailed it. I have a pond at the house with a floating dock and an automatic fish-feeder. The BG love the commercial feed but the Bass do not. I bring home Shad and release into the pond. Hopefully I will have a sustainable population one day.