The number one indicator for being able to go out and net shad or baitfish in Southern California is utilizing birds. There are three key birds that we use here in Southern California to locate threadfin shad. The three key birds are a Blue heron, a white egret which is sometimes called the snow egret, and the Western Grebe. These three birds are absolutely key to your success when it comes to netting bait on a body in the state of California. Don't get me wrong it is always good to utilize the Internet, text messaging, phone calls and such to find locations of where people are netting bait on a particular body water. We still utilize every single bit of information possible. Everything from walking into a tackle store and someone giving you information as to where the bait is, to hanging around in the parking lot after a day of fishing and someone is nice enough to share with you where they have netting some bait. We utilize every single source of communication possible to locate where bait might be. An example of this isle have lot's of shore anglers or what we might call foot soldiers that walk the bank on a daily basis and fish for bass at Lake Casitas in Southern California. I try to make friends with as many of them as possible. Giving them fishing tips or throw them a plastic worm or something that the fish are biting on to develop some type of rapport. I always make sure that they have my cell phone number and I tell them if your ever standing on the bank and you see any threadfin shad swim down the shoreline make sure you send me a text message. I cannot tell you how many times I have been on the water with my bass fishing guide clients at Lake Casitas and got a text message from somebody who was standing on the bank fishing on the complete other end of the lake and they told me that the shad were right at their feet. What I'm getting at is if you're going to be successful as an angler you have to utilize every single tool that you can to stay ahead of the game. If you start your day and have absolutely no idea where to begin without question you want to pay attention to the birdlife. Probably the most prevalent bird that you will see on anybody water in California is the Western Grebe. Now I'm going to mention three birds during this article. I'd like you to go to "Google Images" and take a look at these three birds and get a good idea of what they look like. This way when you get to the lake you will understand exactly what you're looking for. A Western Grebe is a fish eater. You've seen these birds on the lake with their white neck, black hood and orange eyes. They dive underneath the water and chase and capture live threadfin shad and various baitfish. They are an excellent indicator of where the shad are. When you see schools of Western Grebes in the water you can bet the live shad is very close by. When ever you see Western Grebes you're definitely in the right portion of the lake to net some bait. The next great indicator is a blue heron standing on the bank. When ever you are driving down the lake and you see a blue heron standing on the bank in a hunting position there is without question baitfish in that area. They have been called the best fishermen in the world and for good reason. When you see one standing on the bank staring at the water there is something right there in front of them. That baitfish could be far off the bank but they can see it. It's an absolutely wonderful indicator of where you will be able to net live shad or bait. The third most important bird would be a white egret or snow egret. There also a tremendous indicator us to wear live bait fish are in a reservoir. It seems like every western lake is a bit different. Some lakes the very best bird on the lake for spotting bait is a Blue heron. On other lakes it seems as though a white egret or snow egret is absolutely the best indicator. This will vary from lake to lake. But just remember those three birds spend their entire time looking for fish to eat. They do not eat plankton, grass and weeds and so on. They eat Live fish. Once I became a full-time fishing guide I really regret the fact that I didn't spend more time paying attention to birdlife when I was a full-time professional tournament angler. Their such a great indicator of where you want to spend your time fishing and they can show you exactly where the bait is and where the greatest population of bait will be. Pay attention closely to these three birds and this will expedite your success when it comes to netting live bait to use for bass. Now that you actually have your bait in your life well It's time for the fun part and out there and actually use the bait and reap some of the benefits of your hard work. You know many times we spent two or three hours in the process of actually netting or what we call "making" live bait. After all this hard work it's really nice to be able to enjoy the rest of your day utilizing the bait and hopefully enjoying one of the best days of bass fishing you'll ever experience. Without question my absolute favorite set up for fishing line shad is just taking my existing drop shot rod that's already in my boat as I feel like it's absolutely the best rod and reel combination that you could use for fishing life shad. What I mean by this is if you have a drop shot rod or a shaky head rod in your boat it's probably set up perfectly for fishing with live shad. Most all of us use a drop shot rod that has 6 pound test line on it and this will be perfect for fishing live shad. You will hear of people that will use as light as 4 pound test line to fish with live shad. But I recommend that you use 6 pound test line as your day in and day out set up for fishing live shad. Just take that drop shot and grab a #4 mosquito style drop shot hook and you're ready to go. My favorite hook for fishing live shad is a #4 Daiichi Drop Shot hook in the color red. I almost always fish my live shad with absolutely no weight. This is what we call fly lining the live bait. I've done a lot of experimenting with different weights in front of the bait. I recommend your live shad with absolutely no weight. Now that you have the proper rod it's important that you grab your #4 drop shot hook that is tied onto your line and walk back to the livewell where you have your live shad. Have a small shad dip net ready right next of the life well. Reach into the tank and try to only scoop up one shad at a time. Grab hold of the shad and cup it in your hand and take your drop shot hook and hook the shad perpendicular through a small area of white Cartlidge that you will see in the nose. As you hold the shad in your hand you will see this white looking area right on the nose. That white looking area is cartilage and that's wonderful spot for hooking your life shad. Once you hook your bait it's important that you toss the live hooked shad overboard into the water. What I am trying to get at is I want you to try to keep your bait as lively as possible. You're not fishing with lures any longer. You need to think about keeping your bait wet at all times. Don't hold the shad in the air for a long period of time as you try to figure out where you're going to cast. Try to be as gentle as possible and always remember that your fishing with a live bait. The more you take care of the live bait your fishing the better it will take care of you. For instance when you have your bait out there and you're left to make another calf always real you're shouting very very slowly not to overstressed the bay. Don't make any radical movements with the shad and force it to work harder than it has to. Remember that this is a live bait and the less you stress the bait the better it will produce. Take your shad and gently pitch it out into the water. I always like to fish the shad with a small bow in my line. You do not want rto have line laying all over the water but you definitely want to have a small bow in your line so that you Shad can move freely and look natural. We call this process "Letting the dog run in the yard". What I mean by this is if you take a dog and walk him in a park if you don't pull on the lanyard the dog can walk freely and look natural as it moves around in the park. If you keep a small bow in your line this allows the shad to move freely in the water. This allows the shad to swim and look natural and the water. Remember once again there are so many of us that fish with lures and are used to fishing with a much tighter line. You fish live shad with a small amount of slack. Let that Shad move freely and this will produce a much better results for you. There are really three distinct strikes that you received when fishing live shad. One of them is you will see a surface boil in the general direction of your line. It looks much like a strike on the top water lure. What has happened is the bass has chased the live shad to the surface and surface boiled your bait. Those bass know that the shad can't fly. They use the surface of the water much like a football player uses the sideline to push a running back to the sidelines knowing that the running back does not want to go out of bounds. The bass know that once they get the bait pushed up to the surface they got it cornered. You get a lot of strikes this way so be aware of a surface boil in the general direction of your bait. The most obvious strike is when your line takes off at a high rate of speed you obviously know that your bit. And the last one is a bass that swims toward the boat. There's really no way of knowing about this fish and generally as you begin to reeling in your bait to make another cast you recognize that you've had the bass on for quite some time and then of course you set the hook. The hook set when fishing with live shad is much like your hook set when you fish a shaky head worm or drop shot plastic worm. Just a good solid Hook set is perfect. I really hope that this two-part series has been informative and will help you enjoy a new segment in your world of bass fishing. Like I said this is not something that's available to us anglers very often. Fishing with live bait is a very seasonal technique. But when you see live shad in the water that are harvestable it's time to go to work with your shad net. Any of you that have any questions about this two-part story are always welcome to reach me at www.RichTauberFishing.com. You can also call or text me at 818-439-1154. For those of you that would like to learn the technique firsthand you're more than welcome to get a hold of me the next time your in Southern California and book a guided fishing trip. Good fishing to all and enjoy.