Fill up your bait tank with big gizzard shad when targeting Lake Murray stripers

Chip Bragg prefers a better than hand-sized gizzard shad to weed out bites from smaller stripers.

Striper fisherman Chip Bragg confesses catching big gizzard shad might be as tough as catching big stripers on those same shad.

Bragg throws a 10-foot, 5/8-inch mesh cast net for shad; he said patterning the bait is almost as tough as patterning big stripers.

“They don’t flip on the surface and give themselves away like herring,” he said. “I’ve caught them as deep as 10 feet on some days, but when it’s cold, they might be as deep as 15 to 20 feet deep.”

He said he has no idea why, but there are certain spots on Lake Murray where he can catch gizzard shad year-round. During winter, his best spots tend to be the same areas he catches big stripers: the backs of creeks and either side of a long, shallow point.

Bragg said gizzard shad will move shallow at night, but they rarely come to lights like other baitfish. He finds that gizzard shad gravitate more toward clay banks littered with scattered rocks, rotting leaves and tree limbs.

“Gizzard shad will root down in the bottom clutter for food. Sometimes, you might see where they have stirred the water up, but for the most part, it’s a lot of blind-casting,” he said.

The bright side of fishing with gizzard shad is that a couple dozen big baits is plenty for a day of fishing, even if he’s running six to eight lines.

“I do not change baits very often, unless a fish eats one or severely injures it without getting the hook,” he said. “If the bait turns blood-red from stress, it might be time to change, but for the most part, a deep to light-colored gold means he’s good to go.”

About Phillip Gentry 815 Articles
Phillip Gentry of Waterloo, S.C., is an avid outdoorsman and said if it swims, flies, hops or crawls, he's usually not too far behind.

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