Finessing the Shad Spawn on Bridges

How Matt Arey tackles finicky bass relating to spawning shad

When you get to the time of year when bass are postspawn, the shad start spawning, and one of the first places they show up is around bridge pilings. The shad use the bridge pilings to beat the eggs out, and the bass follow right in behind.

If you start graphing those fish throughout the day and there are a lot there, you know that there was a shad spawn going on in the morning. The fish are typically suspended, and bridges are typically over deep water, anything from 20 to 100 feet deep.

There are a lot of ways to catch those fish. You can fire a swimbait out there, or catch ’em on a jerkbait. I’ve even caught them on a topwater when they’re really active, and even on little grubs. Basically, anything that imitates a shad can work.

Later in the day, when the fish are suspended and they’ve been feeding all night and even early in the morning, they get a little bit finicky, and you can transition over to finesse tactics.

If most of the fish are concentrated in the 8- to 15-foot range, a weightless wacky rig is a great way to go. But you can weight the bait or use a drop-shot depending on how deep the fish go and how they react to it. When you’re video-game fishing, sometimes if it has a little too fast of a fall they don’t like it, and sometimes if it has a little slower fall they love it, and vice versa. It’s an experimental thing.

Mostly when I fish a soft stick bait I just give it small shakes. Those longer hops and big twitches don’t look as natural. Because fish are so pressured around bridges and have been feeding during the night that more finesse approach, that minimal action, is more effective. Plus, most of the bites usually come on the fall when that bait looks the most natural.

For a wacky rig, I like a 7-foot, medium-light-action Okuma Helios spinning rod with the Helios spinning reel and 8-pound-test P-Line Ultimate Fluorocarbon. I’ll use a 1/0 Gamakatsu TGW Drop Shot Hook, and then my go-to stick bait is a Lunkerhunt Lunker Stick. I do use braid to a fluoro leader when I drop-shot, but for everything else I’ve gone back to straight fluoro. With the P-Line fluoro I don’t have a problem with it looping up real bad, and if you don’t overfill your reel it usually isn’t a problem. I hate breaking off leaders during a tournament, so I sacrifice a little bit to save a lot of time. There’s nothing worse than having to tie on a leader during the day.

As for colors, usually you catch them on more natural colors – green pumpkin and things like that. Under the shade line on a bridge, darker colors tend to show up a little better. Every once in a while I’ll put on a natural shad pattern, something that’s more translucent with maybe a little silver and gold in it like a threadfin, and every once in a while that’s what it takes to get them to bite.