Exude Micro Shads

[Mr. Pike1]

So I am looking to add a pack of what has now come to be one of my favorite plastics for panfish. I stop at my local Gander in Maplewood and no Mirco Shads, I hit Joe's they have some Exude products but no Micro shads. I am getting nervous and decide old reliable Fleet should be able to meet my need. To my horror they also do not have them inventoried.

I can of course put and order online for a pack from Mr. Twister site but have a need for this Thursday and Friday.

Anyone seen any on the shelves anywhere.

Matt- Does Thorn brothers have these? I prefer the pearl and black but pink (ah I mean bubble gum) works as well

[Matt Johnson]

Nope, TB doesn't carry them, but I believe most of the Gander's do. Shoot me an e-mail if you're in desperate need of a few and maybe we can meet up somewhere...

[braves57]

Can I ask for some advice on using these? I'm not a plastics guy, but going on one of the tips on this site I decided to give 'em a try last Sat. I fished a black micro shad on a jig head under a mini-stealth bobber. I twitched the bait back to the boat at a varied pace... After a dozen casts and no luck I decided to go back to live minnows. I can only watch the kid catch so many before going back to the proven method. I would however like to know if I am fishing these right... Thanks for any tips!!!

[markkstanley]

I carry four colors but white has been the best producer for me. I will switch to black, green and pink in that order if white is not working.

[Wookiee]

Vary your retrieve from slow and steady to twitched to pauses let the crappies tell you what they want. Yesterday the twitched worked the best for me on Tonka but Friday was slow and steady. I usually start out with white and a pink 1/32 oz. or 1/64 oz. collarless jighead but 2nd to try has been outproducing that which is glow jighead with a pink micro.

[Mr. Pike1]

Matt- Thank you for the feedback and offer. I located a pack in bubble gum in my plastic assortment and 4 of my favorite color are left so I should be good as generally I can fish one or two of these the entire day. Still need to hook up somewhere sometime to chase the pannies I know you have your new rig from last year so I can just meet you at lake and fish seperate boats. Of course if I see you on a bite I may slip in closer to investigate.

Braves- My advise on plastics. I always have my little pack of waxies for the most part or on occassion worms or crappie minnows. My comfort level is with live bait to target an area and find the agressive fish. Once I am on a bite I begin to experiment with plastics and if the bite is on I stay with the plastics as they are easier and cleaner to fish with.

For the Micro shad specifically I have found it to be an awesome sunfish bait. At this time of year I target the shallow warmer muddy bays for the sunfish and I do not use a float. I fan cast the area let it hit the muddy bottom and jig a bit or try slow vs fast retrieve. I believe the fish see this as some type of insect hatching in the mud and attack.

For crappies I have found most to be staging in in shallow of right on the first breakline from 8-10 feet. I fan cast or drift the area for the agressive fish. The float will of course work once you are on them and know the depth.

I always am trying other baits. This year I have also found the micro shad twister tails in 1 inch to be effective in the color white or yellow, berkley power grubs, crappie nibblets, paddle tails, and to my surprise the gulp maggets. I am not a huge fan of gulp but the maggets do work.

On my list to try Thursday or Friday is the little atom plastics I used ice fishing. They are soft and have a licorice sent that may prove to be good on the open water like the ice.

Thats all I got have a good day on the water and hope this helps you slay the slabs

[polarsusd81]

I have always liked fishing plastics. Everyone I fish with eventually switches over and has me teach them how to use em. Plastics for pannies early are awesome. I have not tried the exude plastics yet. In a recent trip we used some 1" twister tail Berkley Power Grubs. They were unbelievable. The gal pal was using waxies and euros, my buddy and I both on the plastics. They were all about even but the fish seemed to hit the plastic far more aggressively.

Like Mr. Pike said, look for them in shallow bays with a dark murky bottom. We found a great little spot last friday where there was a shallow bay 7-8 feet connected by a 15' wide channel to a really shallow muddy bay that was about 20 acres and 2 feet deep. The fish were moving in and out of the channel all evening. Between the three of us we caught 100+ gills and 60+ crappies plus a couple lil bass in two hours. The best was my buddy landing a thick 5 1/2 lb bass on his ultra light and a flu-flu. His biggest bass so far.

Tom

[braves57]

thanks for the info guys! I was fishing in 4-6 feet of water that was weedy at the bottom so I hestitated using the plastics without a float... maybe these are better over a weedless bottom without the float?

thanks again!

[Matt Johnson]

You can fish the Micro Shad both with and without a float. I personally prefer to fish it with a float because you can keep a more consistent action. The Micro Shad is a small-profiled bait and doesn't perform all that well with a larger jig/weight. It's intended to swimmed through the water with short, subtle hops. I'll fish it below a Thill MS$-1 Mini Stealth that's pugged with two BB shot. I also prefer a 1/32oz collarless jighead. This allows me to both cast the bait a decent distance as well as hone in on the up-biting fish. You can also dance a jig very well with the Mini Stealth floats.

More often than note I'm working the plastic about 2-4 feet below the float. Little twitches and glides seem to work the best. Almost like you're jigging to plastic while slowly retreiving it.

Pearl has been one of my better colors, but the pink as various shads of black definitely have their time and place too...