# Does the crazy amounts of shad on top effect the catfish bite?



## Matt Jackson (Apr 21, 2015)

Im Just curious.Where I catfished lastnight there was 1,000 of shad on top of the water.I fished for 8 hours straight.I used fresh Caught shad,strawberry chicken breast,chicken liver, and live bluegills.Big hooks and little hooks.Not 1 fish and I'm racking my brain to figure out how I didn't catch a fish.Any thoughts?


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## Chillydigits (Jun 11, 2013)

On the couple lakes I fish, pods of Shad on the surface doesn't seem to effect the channel cat bite, but the Shovels shut off. This is just my observation and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I would say it would be better when the shad are on the surface then say down deep, LOL but this is a yearly thing that happens every year, this is a weird time for channels in between post spawn and late summer patterns, My suggestion to you is to fish deeper water, less bites but probably better fish. Hang in there, yesterday was a weird bite, we hammered them early then the switch turned off and as the clouds and wind switched to the NW , we never had another tap.


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## Matt Jackson (Apr 21, 2015)

Thanks for the reply.I was fishing near the dam in 10-15 feet of water.Ive never had much luck down there.But I figured if I hung in there and tried different baits it would pay off.Im gonna gonna go back to the 20-30 foot deep old creek channel that comes into the lake.Gotta catch some bluegills now.


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