I was at Gander yesterday in lakeville, and in the bait shop they had a huge bag of preserved shad. Now i’ve seen the preserved shiners and other baits but not the shad. Have any of u folks used this, and if so, do they work?? It was about 10 bucks a bag
I’ve never tried it from the store, but shad usually works pretty well. There’s two bags in my fridge right now. Dave, they’re all yours if you want them back!
In my opinion it depends what, if anything, they are preserved in. I am not too high on preserved baits for cutbait. Things like Uncle Josh preserved baits I would only use in a moving presentation, not still fishing. I think most would agree the fresher, the better. If by fresh you mean frozen with no freezer burn, then I’d use them.
In Spring if there is bunch of dead ones or you can net them with a bait net. Put them in a bucket heavily salt in inch deep layers and the channels absolutley love them hooked through the eyes.
They had them at Gander in Maplewood also. Sealed in a bag on the shelf (not frozen). The shad were 3-4″ long. I think it was a 1 pound bag.
I was at a bait shop up in Blaine last weekend and looked in their freezer. They had a huge box of frozen shad in there. I asked if I could buy some of them and the owner told me they were shipping them to Colorado, whatever that means.
I’ve tried the preserved shad before and never had much luck with them. Fresh shad is a completely different story all together though. I would rather use worms then preserved shad mostly because, in my opinion, the preserved shad lose their baityness (i bet that word aint in the dictionary). Even shad kept on ice for a couple of days dont seem to have the same effect as fresh shad.
That is just my observation and your mileage may vary 
Thanks
Jim
“baitiness” could be the next “truthiness” (a word coined by Stepen Colbert that became the new word of the year last year)
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