FIRST PUBLISHED:(26/11/23)
Shad is a popular term used to describe quite a few different bait fish in Australia. The name is probably derived from the USA where Shad are actually members of the of Herring family. From what I can gather Australian herring are not the same as USA Herring but that doesn’t stop us from borrowing the term “Shad”.
| photo1 |
My paddle tail shad is 130mm long and sports a relatively large rectangular tail which imparts plenty of tail movement and a generous shoulder role.
I cast them in natural baitfish and prawn colours including:
- Pale olive with 0.03mm gold hex fleck throughout.
- Dark olive with 3mm strip flex throughout.
- Translucent light green prawn meat colour with silver 0.03mm hex fleck and an olive back with 3mm strip flex throughout.
- Translucent white with black 0.03mm hex fleck throughout.
The key features of my paddle tail shad:
- Realistic durable plastic eyes that are moulded permanently into the body.
- Vigorous tail action and shoulder role.
- Rigs up well on a wide range of 1/0 to 3/0 jig hooks that carry a great range of weights making it a great lure to fish at different depths.
- Alternatively it presents very well when rigged on on 3/0 weedless either unweighted or with differently weighted jig hook heads. In that form it’s a great option when fishing deep into structure.