Was fishing a small lake yesterday and starting marking a lot of fish on a 12’ hard bottom flat. Thought they were crappie, and since I catch a lot of bass while crappie fishing this lake I decided to give it a try. Didn’t catch anything except 1 crappie. After wasting a lot of time I moved on telling myself these fish just weren’t biting. In retrospect I am wondering if these were gizzard shad? I’m used to seeing them in a more concentrated school/ball but given the depth maybe they were spread out more? Thermocline was around 15’ and I marked nothing below it so maybe they were forced up on the flat?

Gizzard shad are big predatory fish, and they roam around on the bottom by themselves all the time.

came across a flat just like you in about 10fow and saw a bunch of markings just off bottom. Sidescan looked like someone threw rice on both sides of the screen.

 

Turned out to be a big school of catfish. Had the longest freshwater fish battle of my life with a 25-30lb cat I caught on my jerkbait rod. wouldnt even fit in my net. 

Might be shad. I saw a bunch of arches one time on a point. Could not catch anything. So I started ripping a jigging spoon off the bottom hoping to just snag one. After a few minutes I snagged a large shad.