Allways wondered if people ever eat them fish. The only thing I have ever used shad for is catfish bait. The cats sure love them.

didn't watch the whole thing, but I'd guess that could happen.. looked like the spines got stuck in the roof of the bass.  can never be certain if that's exactly what happened in this instance, but stranger things have happened--- like all those pics of catfish with basketballs in their mouths.

thanks for the info.  i fish fayette a lot for catfish.  they have slowed down some.

The catfish will eat up everything too. You need some cover like old christmas trees or a stack of cinder blocks.

i will be up to fish lavon a lot in late march and most of april.  my daughter lives in allen, but i stay out at princeton.  get with me and i will take you out a few days.  i like to crappie fish, sand bass, and catfish on that lake. 

We just spent 3days catfishing on the Rio Grande just down stream from the Black Gap WMA in West Texas and caught about 400lbs of channel and yellow cats using old deer and javelina liver on jug lines.  We also used live goldfish on some throw lines at night (this is what we caught the yellow cats on).

Years ago,  the SCS would design and pay for tanks if it fit their conservation goals. They no longer pay for it, but they will help you in siting and designing it.

If at all possible find some place that may have a sub-surface spring. We have two tanks. One has a spring(s), the other doesn't. The spring fed one goes down, but never runs dry. The other does. SCS will help you, but in general if you look for green grass when everything else is dry and brown, it is a good sign that there is subsurface flow. Check with the experts, though.

Good luck. You definitely need year around water. Our spring fed tank is over run with animals during drought.

Make it as large as you can and consider stocking it with catfish, perch, and bass. Will provide a lot of fun during the off-season visits. We catch very large blues, recently added channel cats, and bass. Only problem is the weeds during the summer make it hard to get down to them and then land one after you hook it!

Lady Lavon comes through again!! NICE!!

For catfish, fish below the dam for about 100yrds. Lots of rock there. For crappie, fish (in the spring) above the high bridge around the large trees, we catch a lot of 2-2.5# crappie there. I built the 3-story house on the south weat side of the bridge a few years back. Took one year to build, got a lot of great fishing in. Caught a number of 5-8# flathead cats on bank lines when we started the house, lots of fun. 

Killin the blues right now on the warmer windy days when they have the shad pushed up to the surface in 10 ft. or less. Most fish are 3-5 pound average. Fishing Conroe in the late AM. This is the best time for the blues. I love this time of year. I will be going after crappie here soon too.