Shad Spawn Bass Fishing 101: David Walker’s Strategy for Tennessee River Tournaments

Shad Spawns Can Be Very Productive But Short-Lived

Shad spawns can pay off big, but bass pros who win big money don’t go all in on them. To catch big bass all day during a shad spawn, you gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.

David Walker’s Tennessee River Tournament Strategy

In an early May Bass Pro Tour tournament on the Tennessee River, Major League Fishing pro David Walker explained the importance of playing your cards right when a shad-spawn bite goes bust, switching to a secondary pattern.

“Shad spawns are a big deal, especially in this format,” Walker says, referencing the Bass Pro Tour’s catch-weigh-release, every-keeper-counts format. “When you can get on [a shad-spawn bite], it's awesome. But the problem is it ends. That rest of the day is where you really got to figure out what else to do – because waiting for it to happen again ain't gonna happen.”

That’s among the key lessons Walker shared while fishing on camera May 1 in an MLF Now! Livestream of the Bass Pro Tour’s Stage 4 tournament. He was fishing on Tennessee’s Lake Chickamauga, one of several famed Tennessee River reservoirs. It was the first day of a 4-day tournament – days 1 and 2 were held on Chickamauga; days 3 and 4 on Lake Nickajack, a reservoir located a dam below Chickamauga.

A Chatterbait and a Mussel Bar: A Great Way to Start

The sky was overcast and dark as Walker made repeated casts with a Chatterbait, cranking it back over a freshwater mussel colony atop a shallow, offshore bar on which gizzard shad were spawning.

A steady breeze was blowing, but not in gales – enough to stir a moderate chop, but not enough to whip up whitecaps. Chickamauga’s water was slightly lower and clearer than usual for early May.

Between 7 and 8 a.m. Walker caught three keeper largemouth bass on the spot. Between 8 and 9 a.m. he caught five more. Each fell for his Chatterbait.

“When they’re up there spawning, the [bass] are dumb, because they’re all grabbing what they can when they see it,” explains Walker, a 2023 REDCREST qualifier, 12-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier and 11-time Forrest Wood Cup qualifier.

How To Know When the Bite Is Over

A shad-spawn bite can be epic. Some of those early-morning bass hit “with a vengeance,” knocking slack in his line, Walker says. But even the most epic shad-spawn frenzy won’t usually last all morning – let alone all day – he cautions.

“When them shad quit, the fish are still hanging around, but they're a lot harder to catch,” says Walker, a Tennessee native. “They just slow down. … They get sick of you. They quit buying what you’re selling.”

Between 7 and 9 a.m. David Walker (pictured) caught eight bass on offshore bars. Later in the morning, he ran a bank pattern. — Between 7 and 9 a.m. on May 1 on Chickamauga, David Walker (pictured) caught eight keeper largemouth bass on a shallow, offshore shell bar. Later in the morning, however, he had to switch to a secondary pattern. | Major League Fishing photo by Rob Matsuura

What Is a Shad Spawn and Why Is It a Great Time for Bass Fishing?

A shad spawn is a period in spring when female shad lay eggs and males fertilize them. Both gizzard and threadfin shad are key forage species for bass in the Tennessee and other rivers.

Tennessee River shad generally spawn between late April and early June on shallow, hard-bottom areas when water temps are between 65 and 75 degrees. Hard-bottom areas can include rip-rap banks and shallow offshore bars topped with gravel or freshwater mussel colonies – more often called ‘shell beds’ in bass-pro parlance. Shad will spawn also on hard bottoms around docks and marinas, on grass flats and in shallow backwaters.

Walker fished “some docks and stuff like that” in practice on Chickamauga he says, “but it seemed like these little shoals were the places where I could get more than one bite,” he says. Another bass-pro ligo tip – ‘bar’ and ‘shoal’ are often used interchangeably to mean the same thing. That being said, a shoal is usually bigger and deeper than a bar, Walker says.

You can both look and listen for areas where shad are actively spawning. Listen for slapping sounds. Look for a disturbed water surface where bass are feeding on the shad from below. To learn more about locating the best offshore bars to catch Tennessee River shad-spawn bass on, check out Part 1 of our Shad Spawn 101 series.

Shad generally spawn at night, through dawn and sunrise, and into the early morning. An overcast day can extend a shad-spawn bite into late morning or early afternoon, but don’t bet on it.

A shad spawn is a period in spring when female shad lay eggs and males fertilize them. Both gizzard shad (pictured) and threadfin shad are key forage species for bass in the Tennessee and other rivers. | Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license photo courtesy Fishes of Texas team

David Walker’s Go-To Baits for Capitalizing on a Shad Spawn

Step one in Walker’s offshore shad-spawn gameplan, he says, is to catch “the easier ones first” with a reaction bait – a Chatterbait is among his favorites. Step two is to follow up with a finesse rig fished slowly. More often than not though, he says, “more of the quality fish” will come on the reaction bait.

To learn more about Walker’s favorite baits for catching Tennessee River bass all day during a shad spawn, check out Pt. 3 of our Shad Spawn 101 series next week.

You’ll know your reaction-bait bite is starting to go bust, Walker says, when bass begin to “slap it, hit it two or three times,” before you hook them.

Back on Chickamauga, May 1, between 9 and 10 a.m. Walker caught two more shell-bed largemouth. The first came on the Chatterbait, the second on a soft-plastic worm rigged on a shaky-head jig. Between 10 and 11 a.m. on the same spot, he caught one more on the shaky-head.

Step 1 in David Walker's offshore shad-spawn gameplan is to catch “the easier ones first” with a Chatterbait (pictured). — Bass pro David Walker (pictured) says Step 1 in his offshore shad-spawn gameplan is to catch “the easier ones first” with a reaction bait – a Chatterbait (pictured) is among his favorites. Step two is to follow up with a finesse rig fished slowly. | Major League Fishing photo by Rob Matsuura

When the Bite Dies: Walker’s Secondary Patterns

At about 11:30 a.m. May 1 on Chick, Walker observes that his offshore-bar shad-spawn bite has gone bust. Walker jokes that at this point, he’s trying to use “mental telepathy” to generate bites. “It’s not working,” he deadpans, acknowledging it’s time to heed the advice he offered earlier.

“I need to move is what I need to do,” he says. “I know there’s still some fish here, but they just got sick of me. The shad aren’t spawning like they were. I just need to move over and find some new fish.”

When the shad stopped spawning May 1 on Chickamauga, Walker says, they didn’t stray far from the bar where he’d been catching them.

“They were over in the creek, out in the middle of it,” he says. “And then that’s where the bass were too, under them. In the creek itself, not up on the bar.”

When a shad-spawn bite goes bust, Walker says, “you’ll see a lot of variety” in anglers’ secondary patterns – dredging deep offshore ledges; beating the bank in backs of creeks, hitting docks and laydowns; probing the edges of mid-depth eelgrass and/or milfoil; and targeting rip-rap near dams and bridges.

Walker’s secondary pattern is often to target shallow banks with a swim jig or flippin’ jig. “There’s probably not one best way, but you just gotta make the most of the way you choose,” he advises. “You can kind of get screwed up trying to do it all.”

Walker shares another seasoned-angler pro tip – don’t try to cover the whole reservoir when you’ve only got half a day left to fish. If you fished the shad-spawn on the reservoir’s lower end, run your secondary pattern on the same end.

“Once you commit and run all the way down there, you’re not going to run all the way back up again,” Walker says. “My other option was down the lake, nowhere near this,” he says in the MLF Now! livestream, referencing both the area he’s fishing at that moment, and a distant area he found in practice that also had good potential for catching a bunch of bass. “But I’m confident I can get more bites up here. It’s a good area – always has been.”

Therein lies another veteran-pro tip – the same spots on the same offshore bars will often yield shad-spawn bass year after year on Tennessee River reservoirs.

“They're always in one little spot,” Walker observes. “You fish [an area] for a half a mile and you get bites in one spot. Next year, you go back – same spot.”

“When you can get on [a shad-spawn bite], it's awesome," says MLF pro David Walker (pictured). "But the problem is it ends." — “Shad spawns are a big deal, especially in this format,” says MLF pro David Walker (pictured), referencing the Bass Pro Tour’s catch-weigh-release, every-keeper-counts format. “When you can get on [a shad-spawn bite], it's awesome. But the problem is it ends." | Major League Fishing photo by Rob Matsuura

Walker's Shad Spawn Tactics Can Work on Your Reservoir or River

The construction of multiple power-generation dams on the Tennessee River created a string of world-class fisheries from Kentucky, through Tennessee, into Alabama, and back into Tennessee.

Top Tennessee River Lakes for Shad Spawn Success

Lake Chickamauga (TN)
Guntersville Lake (AL)
Pickwick Lake (AL/TN/MS)
Kentucky Lake (KY/TN)
Wheeler Lake (AL)

Other Tennessee River Options

Wilson Lake (AL)
Nickajack Lake (TN)
Fort Loudoun Reservoir (TN)
Tellico Reservoir (TN)
Watts Bar Reservoir (TN)

With slight modifications for local variables, Walker’s Tennessee River shad-spawn tactics can work on other rivers and reservoirs throughout the country.

Great Shad Spawn Fishing Options Across the Country

Walter F. George Reservoir (AKA “Lake Eufaula”) on the Chatahoochee River in Alabama
Lake Dardanelle and some other areas on the Arkansas River
Mississippi River pools 4-9 on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border
The Ohio River and its tributaries, Cumberland and Green rivers, in Kentucky