Yesterday I ran into a situation that I have never encountered in my 35 years of serious bass fishing. I was fishing a tournament with my buddy and about noon went to the back of a creek where I have caught them good in the past. Shad was everywhere and bass were busting through them. They fed constantly for a couple of hours and I only caught one 3 pounder that was foul hooked on a jerkbait. The water was stained and you could see a foot or so down. Water was 47-48 degrees.
In the past I have always caught cold water schoolers, usually on an a-rig, fishhead spin, small swimbait, etc. We threw fishhead spins, flukes, alabama rig, jerkbaits, shad raps, little george, silver buddy, sassy shad, rattle traps and many other baits. It was no problem to hook a shad on every cast and we could see the fish slashing through the bait and they were all 2-4 lbs. We would wait until we saw the boils on the water and throw right on the boils.
Now I have dealt with summer schoolers that would not eat in super clear water, but this was a first. The shad were 2.5 inches long. Any ideas on what may have worked and what works for you guys in this situation? I think I had a couple of good bites and had fsh hooked briefly before they came off. I'm guessing that if caught those fish would have been foul hooked.