Hey, Keith here.

Every serious bass angler has a favorite bite, and this one is mine: the shad spawn.

If you fish from the bank and you're not taking advantage of it, you are flat out missing the best opportunity of the entire year.

This is the only time all season when massive amounts of baitfish push into the shallows. And the bites are violent, aggressive, and downright fun.

I was reminded of all this during a church retreat last weekend when I was forced to give up on the jigs I'd been throwing for months and make a change.

Today I’ll tell you about that trip and help you take advantage of the shad spawn.

It was the middle of May, and if I'm being honest, I had mentally checked out of my post-spawn approach.

I'd been grinding through jig after jig, working slow presentations and trying to coax lethargic bass off the bottom. 

It was the right move for a few weeks, but I started to wonder if I needed a change.

The answer came at a church retreat.

Our group rented out a camp on a private lake. The kind that's been there for decades, with thick vegetation, clear water, and that green healthy glow that tells you the ecosystem is in good shape.

I barely slept that first night—not because of the fellowship or late-night conversations—but because I kept thinking about that lake sitting right outside the door.

I was up before the sun.

I grabbed my rod and dug through my tackle bag out of habit.

My hand went straight for the black and blue Bitsy Bug Jig. Old habits. I tied it on and headed to the water.

Then I heard it.

About 50 yards down the bank, there was a cove tucked into the shoreline.

Big blowups. Not little pops. Full explosions, the kind where you can see the grass move and the water churn.

I stopped mid-cast.

The water had been in the low 80s all week. It hit me like a truck. Post-spawn lures? Old news.

I bit my line, opened a brand new pack of Lab Series minnows I had been saving, and tied one on.

I hadn't thrown a fluke-style bait in four or five months. I was giddy just rigging it up.

I started working toward the cove, casting long before I got close. That's the key when you're on foot.

You can't sneak up on shallow fish; you have to stay back and let the cast do the work.

Even from a distance, I could see it clearly. Shad everywhere. Getting launched into the air. A few were even hitting the bank. The bass had them pinned.

On about the 10th cast, I overshot and my minnow landed on dry ground at the edge of the bank.

I popped it a couple times to bounce it into the water. The second it hit the surface, I saw a wake that you only dream about.

That bass had a mission.

I gave the minnow one slight pop, then started a slow reel. The moment I saw the line go tight, I dropped the rod tip back and swung hard.

BOOM! Solid hookset!

That fish ran back into the cove and launched into the air. Then it turned and jumped again. In shallow water, bass can't make deep runs, so they go up.

I played defense and let it beat itself down. After about 30 seconds, I worked it into the shallows, waded in, and lipped it.

Solid four pounds!

When I removed the hook, it was absolutely stuffed with shiners. A couple were still sticking out of its throat.

That fish made it official: Post-spawn mode was officially over.

Most of the year, bank fishing is a game of limitations, but the shad spawn flips that equation completely.

When water temps climb into the low 70s, shad push tight to bulkheads, dock pilings, and grass edges in massive numbers.

Bass that have been sitting in deeper water for weeks suddenly have a reason to be shallow, right where you're already standing.

The window is short. Most of the action happens from first light until about 9 a.m., but for those two or three hours, the bank can be electric.

This is the time of year to put the jigs and worms away and pick up fast-moving, shad-imitating lures. The bass are aggressive, they're chasing, and they want something that looks like the real thing.

Fluke-style baits: A soft plastic minnow or fluke is hard to beat for bank anglers making long casts. Rig a Lab Series Minnow weightless on a wide gap hook and work it with a twitch-pause retrieve. 

Spinnerbait: A white or white-and-chartreuse spinnerbait with willow leaf blades covers water fast, creates flash, and draws reaction strikes. I like BOOYAH’s Tandem Blade spinnerbait during the shad spawn. 

Topwater poppers: A Chug Bug in the early morning calm is one of the most exciting ways to fish the shad spawn. Work it deliberately. Pop, pause, pop, pause. Your bait needs to stand out and draw a commitment.