(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Springtime bass fishing focuses on the spawn, but it’s not just the bass spawn about which you need to be mindful. When shad are doing their thing, they provide a buffet for hungry bass. If you can intercept that action, it’s a good way to catch a few quick fish each morning, but historically it wasn’t something Virginia pro John Crews took advantage of.
“Before I went out on tour I really didn’t know what the shad spawn was,” he said. “I had heard about it, knew there was a great bite revolving around the shad spawn, but to be honest, I really didn’t know what was going on.”
Fortunately, he learned in a hurry, and now it’s a key part of his arsenal across the country. It starts about the same time bass spawn on a given lake and runs about a month. It includes various types of shad and alewives, but blueback herring are a different ballgame altogether. It doesn’t last long – just from a few hours after it gets dark until shortly after the sun gets up – but while it’s happening, it’s fierce.
“The bass have the easiest meal of the whole year,” he said. That’s because the shad spawn on hard cover like riprap, floating docks, bank grass, bridges and bluff banks – in other words, anything solid. Crews particularly likes to focus on areas that don’t get pounded by waves.
His primary tool is a spinnerbait in white or a white-adjacent pattern, with willow-leaf blades. Not only does it replicate the shad perfectly in the eyes of a bass, but it’ll tell you if there are shad in the area. If you suspect that shad are in an area but you can’t see them, reel a spinnerbait parallel to the cover and you may see as many as 20 or 30 shad follow it back. If that’s the case, keep firing.
He also likes a swim jig with an action trailer, especially if the shad are spawning on bank grass. One advantage of the jig over the spinnerbait is that you can skip it under docks and limbs. Other solid choices include wake baits like the SPRO Zero Minnow 130, as well as walking topwaters, poppers and buzzbaits.
Crews uses a variety of Cashion Rods for his arsenal: a 7’0” medium-heavy CRT for his spinnerbait; a 7’1” heavy-action John Crews frog rod for his swim jig, and the 7’0” medium-heavy ICON for his topwaters. They all get paired with Daiwa Tatula reels, either 6.3:1 or 7.1:1. He throws the spinnerbait on 20-pound Sunline Sniper. The swim jig gets 16-pound Shooter or 30-pound braid. The topwaters go on 30-pound braid.
The best mornings to try this are after calm nights. A big rain will ruin it. He also prefers to look in the portion of a lake where the water starts to transition from clear to stained.
“The cleaner the water, the shorter the shad spawn lasts,” he said.
If you want to learn some of the other aspects of the Missile Baits founder’s system for attacking the shad spawn, including what kind of trailer hook he uses on his spinnerbait and how he affixes his soft plastic trailer, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
