3-4 ft of muddy water. FULL of small shad, with bass hammering them literally all around you.

I threw everything I had at them but could not get them interested. I had plastic worms (tried 4 colors), Flukes, spinners (3 colors), shallow rapala cranks (silver/black) like the shad, livetarget shad crankbaits, buzzbait, literally everything I had but nothing. A couple of times I could have used a baseball bat and hit one coming up through the shad.

One of the most frustrating experiences I have been in in a long while. Thoughts...?

There are times when bass are feeding on shad that they simply will not hit an artificial lure which is why I do not chase schooling bass.

An all white throw net.

In a thread very similar to this one, I suggested trying a "swimbait".

When schoolies are highly selective, I've had decent luck with swimbaits of like size.

Oddly enough, they usually don't respond well to the zoom fluke, in that mood.

Roger

Tell me about it. I even had the shad color on it. Might as well have been throwing an empty hook.

As for the net, believe me, if I had one, I would have been extremely tempted to use it. I saw multiple 3# - 5#ers jumping some within 2-3 ft of the boat.

I could see all the shad right next to the boat. I tried the LiveTarget shad lure I have it literally looks identical to the shad that were jumping. I thought for sure it would work. No luck whatsoever.

I did not pick up a single one till I got ticked motored about 4 miles away and worked a shoreline in current (had a lot of rain about 3 days before) with a plastic u-tail worm.  Made me feel a little better.

The 4 lures I use under those conditions (shallow water) are;

1. Basstrix BaitFry, fly lined on 6 lb spinning tackle.

2. Schurmy Shad*, hollow aluminum spoon.

3. Nail head worm; 5" shad worm (split tail), 3/32 nail weight and #1 Gamakatsu weedless finesse hook, collar rigged, on 10 Lb FC.

4. Huddleston 4" shad swimbait.

Whenever bass are feeding on a specific baitfish like threadfin shad, it's match the hatch or use live shad.

WRB

*Jigshop.com