THE SHAD SPAWN

BY: GARRETT WADE

As the water continues to warm and the bass spawn winds down it’s fast approaching one of my favorite times to fish. The Shad spawn can be some of the most exciting fishing of the year. But you better get up early because it starts at daylight and is usually over by the time the sun breaks the tree line.

Shad start spawning in mid to late April in Mississippi and Alabama. They spawn along riprap, shoreline grass and docks. One of the best ways to locate a shad spawn is to look for birds. They will be in groups along the bank waiting for an easy meal.

Best baits for targeting bass during the shad spawn are spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and swim jigs. My go to is going to be a white Z-Man’s SlingBladeZ spinnerbait with double willow leaf blades. A close second is the Z-Man Jackhammer. I’ll throw it in either a Clearwater shad or dirty white and pair it with a small swimbait for a trailer or the new Southern Salt Hoodwink. With either of these baits it’s important not to fish too fast. You need to fish them slow enough to make contact with the grass and many of the bites will come when it gets caught up and jerked free. Another fun way to target these fish is with a white popping frog. Working the frog quickly with small short jerks resemble shad flickering on top of the water and can draw some incredible blow ups. So next time you’re out on the water keep an eye out for signs of a shad spawn for some fast paced action.

It looks like we are gonna an early Spring. Hopefully the MS River behaves and we have another year without a spillway opening. I can’t remember the last time we had two years in a row, without having to battle that dreaded wave of fresh water.

Assuming things stay on the right and normal path, we have big hopes for April.

If the fresh water stays away, we are hoping to see grass start blooming around the barrier islands. This will bring in baitfish, trout, redfish and other critters. The bait shops should be staying full of live shrimp and croakers, and that should definitely help. Early morning and late evening top water sessions should start getting good as well too. Good go to baits are Super spooks, Top Dawgs, and Skitter Walks. Colors seem to vary, but pink, chartreuse, chrome and clear are usually safe bets. Find the bait and you’ll find the fish.

The near shore fishing, assuming a normal April, can be stellar all month. The warmer the water, the better it gets. The nearshore reefs should go from good to great. The sheepsheads should be heading out and the black drums will hopefully be stacking in. The white trout will be a safe bet, but the speckled trout should get better as the month goes on.

Some of the best redfishing we see all year is in April. The shorelines in Bay St Louis and Bayou Caddy can be

FORECAST BY SONNY SCHINDLER

dynamite. High water that is falling is my favorite. Look for mullet, rain minnows and or pogies. When you find the bait, those reds usually are not far away.

The big push of shrimp will hopefully move through the Louisiana Marsh. The diving gulls will point the way to plenty of action in the school trout.

The crowds are gonna just keep getting bigger at the bait shops, boat launches and all those “secret fishing holes”. Please be courteous and respectful to other anglers. We are all trying to have a good time and catch a few fish.

Growing up fishing in south Mississippi in the 90s and early 2000s most people would bawk at keeping sheepshead. Even my own family. My dad refused to clean them (though he’s not as skilled as his son at cleaning fish).

Today they are highly sought after in all parts of the gulf and are cooked in every way possible. Sheepshead almost exclusively eat crustaceans, shrimp, crabs, barnacles etc. This diet reflects in their great taste. I truly think they are very similar in taste and texture to our beloved Red Snapper. Though, the yield of meat is one of our lowest among species we take to eat.

For some reason people find them hard to clean. They in fact are not difficult to filet. I clean them the same way as I do other big ribbed species. I can clean 18-20 per hour doing it in a manner of what I consider the correct way with no waste.

The one thing we would always enjoy making and eating as kid and teenager, and still do to this day, is sheepshead cakes. We would always refer to them as “fake crab cakes” when we made them.

Remember, keep what you can eat fresh and freeze very little. Fresh fish are always better and metric tons of fish get freezer burnt and thrown away every year. Feel free to add garlic and mo’ spices!