We went and done ok on the cats, the weather was hot, so we didn't fish as much as we would have liked. We went out at sunrise most mornings, and came back in around 10:30am, then back out around 6pm till 10:30 or so and came back. We ended up with 9 eater sized cats, biggest one being 14lb. We had a hard time finding bigger shad, could catch all the 3" ones that you wanted. We caught a few perch, and I believe that is what we caught most of the cats on. I did catch 1 12" crappie in a strange place, on a red worm. I tore my hooks and sinkers off every cast after that, so I gave up on that structure. Maybe at a later date I will try to vertical jig it. I also caught a 5+ lb largemouth in the cast net. Had to revive it next to the boat a bit to get it to swim back off, but that was the largest bass I have ever caught, good to see it swim off on its own power.