While fishing at Hyco yesterday between 7 & 8pm. We saw what looked to be a large school of shad. They seemed to be running for there lives. We could see the fish that was chasing them and they looked to be between 15 & 20 in long.( Couldnot tell what they were ).
We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them from a shad-rap to a silver spoon and they would not hit anything.
I was just wondering if they could have just been a school of huge shad?
Any thoughts on this???

mofish, last year at leesville lake i saw what i thought was breaking fish, couldn't get them to hit anything & when i got close enough they turnrd out to be about 15" shad.

Thanks crappie crossing; After a while that was the conclusion I came too but I was not sure.
Thanks again for the info.

where at in hyco did you see them?

Could have been a school of Carp. The smaller ones (2-3 lbs) school up this time of year.

If they were big shad, you are the first i heard tell of seeing any in hyco.They could be a school of talapia.

From the boat ramp go left. Go left again and thru the channel toward the 2nd bridge. As you exit the channel go left to just past the 2nd boat dock. They were about 30ft out from the shore line.
I didn't know there were shad that large in Hyco but apparently there are.

Notsoimportant; I'm not sure but I don't thank they were carp. didn't look like any carp I have ever seen.
danny b ; What is a Talapia ? I don't think I have ever heard of it.

They are some huge Shad in hyco..!!!! but they were prolly Talapia...the wont bit nothin but a green grub night crawler n bread dough!!

Those are small bass schools, they do the same thing every year at this time, I fish the lake 3-5 times a week, they will hit a small white fluke kept up on top. They are really schooling at the canal that goes toward south right down from the warm water release fence about 7:30-8:30 in the evenings, the lake will be churning with them, but they only hit a small bait, and the shad are not usually that big this time of year and there also good schools of white bass in the lake as well.

Talapia are a distant relative of the sunfish. The were orginally from the tropical regions of French Indochina. They were introduced into American waters some time in the mid to late 19th century. They are an excellent eating fish and have almost no fishy taste at all. Some people find them very bland. They actually can get quite big. I think it would be worth a try to kill and grill a few.

When you throw at them real faster they will run right up and tare you stuff up!!!!!!! throw a helicopter lure!!!!

Mofish the Talapia were put in the lake to eat the algae and grass.I caught one about 5 yrs ago and didn,t know what it was so i threw it back.The lake warden told me that if we caught anymore that we could keep them.They sell for about $8.00 a pound for fillets.Haven,t caught any since,my luck.

Thanks danny, I know what you are talking about now. For some reason it didn't ring a bell being spelled with a T. I really didnot know how to spell it and assumed that it started with a G as in Galapi brim.
Yeah, I cought a couple of them last year and I am relatively sure that is not what they were. I still thank they were large shad but I could be wrong.
Thanks again for your input

well i hope it is large shad,I been fishing hyco all my life and ain,t never seen any big shad,but maybe they are there,hope so any way

There are big shad in Hyco but you usually see them later on in the year up the river in in flat water areas and atnight around dock lights just like SML.