Fishing the White River Shad Kill
Article Provided By: Jimmy “T” Traylor - flyfisharkansas.com/
The Shad Kill provides a unique and very exciting fishing experience. This is when shad from the lake come through the generators. As I understand it the lake water gets cold or hot and the shad go deep and are then sucked through the generators.
Sometimes we get two shad kills a year. One in the early spring (feb-april) and one in the late summer early fall period (early sept thru early oct) but this is not always the case.
When this happens the fish go on a feeding frenzy. If the shad are floating fish will take them off the surface and it is very exciting. Sometimes the swim bladders of the shad are ompromised and they do not float on the surface and are suspended or on the bottom.
Fishing the shad kill is probably the most exciting fishing there is on the upper end of the White River. Fishing the Shad Kill is done from the boat drifting at the same speed as the current and matching up flies that resemble shad. This guide as others has spent many hours developing and testing various flies for this event. Flies that float, flies that sink slowly, flies for the bottom and flies for in between.
However a shad kill does not always happen. Most years we do get a shad kill in the spring and some years we do get one in the late summer early fall. Most of the time an early spring shad kill can be counted on to some degree or another.
Basically when the Bull Shoals dam generates at full capacity shad will come through at any time. When the conditions of water temps and generation come together to produce a shad kill that is the time to be on the White River.
Article Provided By: Jimmy “T” Traylor - flyfisharkansas.com/
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