Did I read that right CJ?  Did Kenlake just go thru a shad kill?  If so, will that affect the 2011 Roadtrip fishing?

There was a shad kill last year on the TN river and I don't think there was an adverse effect on fishing because of it.  The bass I caught on Pickwick and KY lake were fat and healthy as usual last year, also looked like the weights were normal during the BASS events on those lakes.  I'm interested to hear what others think about it too....

from my experience no long term effect but i you try fishing right after a shad kill its kind of hard due to the easy meals

Hey Scrutch just seen this. The shad kill will have no effect then. Matter of fact the effect is all ready over. But for kicks, this is what happens. Threadfin migrate up here from the southern part of the TN. chain during the warm parts of the year. They cannot live in the colder water up here so they die once the water gets so cold. Ever fish in the lake gets fat. I was out today for a while looking around. We had a big rain a couple days ago and the bays are muddy. Nikki did manage to catch one on a trap and it looked like a football!

Perfect.  Just what I like.  FAT FISH!

That kill may make the fish more aggressive feeders when we arrive.  Part of their food resource will be gone.

It may slow the bite for a day or two after the shad kill because of the easy pickings.  Seven weeks from now there will be nothing left of those shad on which the bass can feed.

I don't know how long bass would be interested in the dead shad after the kill.  Catfish, turtles and other scavengers would continue to feed on them but bass...............?

We don't have threadfin shad up here, so most of my baits look like gizzard shad or bluegill.  I think I'm gonna stock up on a few threadfin looking baits for the trip.

Oh, and Rhino, I got some Sledheads in 4/0 (1/8, 1/4, & 3/8 ozs.), but no 2/0.  Do you use a lot of  2/0 sizes too?  4/0 is a little bigger than I generally use.