The shad spawn early bite

Written by

Steve Wright

The BASSTrakk Twitter feed lit up like a slot machine minutes after takeoff yesterday. Expect more of the same today. There’s a massive shad spawn occurring on Wheeler Lake this week, and the Elite Series anglers figured out a way to take advantage of it on Day 1. It didn’t produce many of the leaders at the end of the day, but it did produce a huge number of fish catches.

The leaders generally came from those anglers who worked all day long on spawning and post-spawn bass.

“A lot of these are spawning fish. Spawning and post-spawn,” said David Walker, who is 19th with 15-8. “That’s what makes them difficult to catch. They’re not real interested in chasing and feeding.”

Brandon Lester, who is fourth with 18-11, said, “My fish are post-spawn. I don’t want to say too much about what these fish are doing. I feel like I’ve got fish coming to me. The place I’m catching the big ones is right there, like the first stop (after spawning).

“There’s a lot of fish being caught early on the shad spawn, and I kind of missed that deal. It took me all day to get mine, and it was a long time between bites.”

Lester said he caught seven keepers all day. His bag included three largemouths, a smallmouth and a spotted bass.