When Live Bait Is Dead

By: Todd McCollister

Live bait fishing for striper or walleye is fun. Good bait, is however, the key to a successful outing. And when all the shad in the lake go on vacation, things can get frustrating. So the next time your wanting to live bait fish and the shad are impossible to find try baiting up with several Gizz-4's (in a natural finish) or choose color depending on the season or the actual shad themselves.

Smack Tackle Lures has captured the look and action of a real gizzard shad in a crankbait. In the summer, I like "Green Back". During this time, shad tend to pick up the algae color that is often found in the water. Rig the Gizz-4 similar to the way you would approach live bait fishing. Planar boards are a great way to fish these shad lures. Start with about a 5-6’ Fluorocarbon leader (if possible) attached to the lure at one end and a swivel at the other. This swivel is to allow a stop for the weight that you might want to use; an egg sinker will work fine. I like 1/2 ounce but you need to experiment you might not want any. Then tie the line from rod to swivel. Peel out enough line to get you to where you believe the fish are feeding and apply the planer board keeping in mind the Gizz-4 dives between 4-6 feet on average This will allow you to fish the lure away from the boat and as deep as you want. This technique works better than live bait at times for the simple fact that you can cover more ground quickly. However high speed is not necessary to get the natural action. The lure begins to work naturally around 1.7 MPH. I also like dropping a few on each side of the boat the same way you down rig a shad.

One important tool when doing this kind of fishing is the old fish finder. Not as much to locate schools of fish but to watch the bait. For instance the schools of shad often no matter where you are on the lake will suspend at similar depths. I have found when using this technique whether I am fishing live shad or a Gizz-4 I am most successful keeping the lure from the top half of the school of shad to a couple of feet above the school. For instance if I locate a school of shad that runs from 10 to 18 feet deep I will try to place my lure from 8' to 14' deep. The reason for this is fish in general very seldom move down to strike a bait, but most often will move up or laterally to strike a bait. Placement is key and I could go into more detail but experience is the best teacher.

So the next time you can't seen to round up those frisky shad for trolling try a frisky Gizz-4 on for size and hang on........