Forget fishing Harris for a little while

You can forget about catching much at Harris for some time. We went Sunday and fished several places and marked a lot of fish at 30-35 feet but couldn't get them to hit anything, spoons, jigs, minnows or anything I had in the box. I quickly found out why. We were watching a ton of birds diving on the shad but really couldn't figure out why because there was no dead shad around and with the higher temp they shouldn't be dying from cold shock. We fished a ways from the herd most of the time but went right where the birds were diving on the way out. When I went thru 37 feet of water it came up as 1 foot deep because the shad were so thick. My trolling motor was really thumping thru them, sounded like I was going thru weeds. Anyway, here's a video of my 12 year old daughter throwing the cast net. We did this about 10 times and no matter where we threw the net it came back with the same results.

I would say every crappie in that lake gained 2 or 3 pounds that day. They are probably sitting on the bottom not able to move.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2SGeApbL0Y

First off let me say awesome job teaching that young lady how to throw a cast net! Too bad couldn't keep them alive for an extended time sure could save you all some money!


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That's exactly what I saw last Saturday on my Humminbird. I forgot to bring my SD card, so I couldn't download any screenshots. In one place, the shad were solid from 5' down to 40' at the bottom. Great video and a perfect way to explain the fishing situation on Harris right now.

I took a pic of my screen where we were throwing the net.

Funny how kids can learn a little faster sometimes. I watched a few videos and threw my net from my back deck several times before I got the hang of it. I took both my daughters out and they were throwing nearly perfect after 1 or 2 throws. Now it's time to graduate to a 10 foot net.

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That is exactly what we saw. I think the shad at closer to the surface would like to be deeper in warmer water, but there are just so many, I don't think they can swim down. My guess is that those closer to the surface are suffering cold chock and they are the ones the gulls are eating.

I wish I could throw a net that well.

Dang, have enough in the net for a year of cat fishing

This is something that I saw every year that I can remember at Shearon Harris Lake... but I cannot recall it REALLY ever stopping the bite. I assume this is because I found out pretty quick that fishing in the areas of these dense shad concentrations was (in fact) pointless as some of the others have and many others will. I also found that during this time of the year crappie are beginning their migration into creeks channels and shallower / warmer tributaries / portions of the lake and more away from the deeper water... and begin favoring more easterly facing exposures that are subject to longer periods of sunlight and warming. Crappies and all other species are no doubt aware of the smorgasbord that is available to them at this time of the year... but I (personally) do not believe that the majority of crappies or any other fish species is following this shad schooling phenomenon full time... but are more likely only visiting it whenever they need to or want to. Just my two cents on what I have always found to be a very interesting topic. Thanks for posting.

Ran into this school in the shallows here in South AR back around Christmas. These were 6-8" long! It was crazy!

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That's a nice school of fish.

We fished a few different areas around the shad not knowing they were schooled up like that. Had we known the whole time we would've moved to the other end of the lake. We were only there for 2 or 3 hours.