Your Lake Has No Shad – So Why Are You Following Them?

If your lake doesn’t have any shad, most of the fall advice you’ve heard isn’t written for you. Every video says the same thing: follow the bait balls and the bass will be right under them. On a pond or a pan fish lake, that bait ball never shows up.

The bass on these lakes are eating bluegill, perch, and crawfish, and none of those live like shad. That changes where the fish sit, how deep they sit, and how slow you need to fish. I’ve spent more than a few falls running open water on a lake like that and catching nothing. The way I fish them now is pretty much the opposite of chasing bait, and it’s put more bass on the bank than anything else I’ve tried.

0:00 No shad in your lake? Read this first
0:46 Why following the shad works, and why it doesn’t here
2:00 How to tell which kind of lake you’re fishing
2:50 The last green grass is the first place I go
4:16 Hard bottom and the crawfish most people skip
5:25 Docks and laydowns: easy bluegill spots
6:06 Why I learned this the hard way
6:39 How depth changes as the fall goes on
7:35 Wind on a pan fish lake
8:08 How to fish cover instead of open water
9:24 Bluegill and perch colors that fit the forage
10:53 Trailers and the one bait I’d pick
11:17 The way I fish it: slow, green grass, pause