Timy - I guess i must pray to the crappie gods for forgiveness for desecrating a quart of golden nuggets and be beaten about the body and face with a carp. it was an honest screw up on my part (old age) and I will swear on a gallon of rosie reds to never do it again. I feel better now. I agree with only going with fresh shad although I have used 4 year old frozen shad that were coated with cornmeal and caught a bunch of channels in the Deep Fork River. I'm gonna give the fillets a try since there is no point in wasting the fillets. I will post a response on how the trip turns out.

Now tell us about removing the tails to, I assume, release more blood and scent.