Shads ≥ Bucktails

For those of you who are too far removed from high school math and science classes to recall, the title reads: “Shads are greater than or equal to bucktails.”

The superiority of the shad body over the tried-and-true bucktail may go down in surfcasting history as the hill I choose to die on. If so, I’ll wear that honor with pride until the day I make my final cast. I want to like bucktails more than I do. Honest, I do. But outside a few specific scenarios where I simply like throwing a bucktail more than a shad body, the shad body ALWAYS produces better for me.

It’s more dynamic.

It’s more adaptable.

It’s more realistic.

It’s just more better.

I just returned from a week in Point Clear, Alabama, where I attended the American Sportfishing Association’s annual Sportfishing Summit. Amid my many committee meetings and keynote sessions, I managed to squeeze in some fishing. This was my first time fishing the salt in Alabama, so I did some quick research beforehand to identify the likely targets—redfish and spotted seatrout—as well as the most promising methods for a traveling angler with limited local experience.

I quickly settled on packing a variety of shad bodies and appropriately sized jig heads, along with several other lures that consistently cracked the top-five lists. The primary forage would be shrimp and small baitfish, so the goal was to imitate them as closely as possible. I packed some highly realistic shrimp imitations from Z-Man, Berkley, and Savage Gear and gave them plenty of time at the end of my line. And believe me, I tried plenty of other offerings, too, including several styles and sizes of topwaters, plastic-lipped stickbaits, and even a few different twitchbaits that seemed to rank highly on just about every “must-have” list I consulted.

But the shad body did 100% of the damage.

Throughout the week, I landed more than 30 redfish, 20-plus spotted seatrout, more silver seatrout than I could count, several small drum or croaker that I couldn’t positively identify, and one very angry gar. Hooking that last one seemed like a good idea right up until I realized I’d eventually have to unhook it without getting bitten myself.

Upon returning home, I made some notes for future trips to Alabama. Then it dawned on me: As productive as the shad body had been, would I have been just as successful had I thrown bucktail jigs instead?

Emphatically, NO!

But why?

I’ve given it some preliminary thought, and I’m sure further reflection will produce even more justification for my position. Above all else, though, the shad body is simply more versatile. I can nearly perfectly match the color of the local forage or choose something that stands out when I think it’ll give me an edge. It also allows me to present a larger profile without going excessively heavy on the jig head, an added bonus when “floating” a jig through current to reach selective fish feeding along a shadow line.

A bucktail jig, on its own, is rarely as productive as one dressed with pork rind (or a modern synthetic equivalent), a curly tail, or even a shad body. A shad body, however, delivers that added attraction right out of the package. More importantly, I have the confidence to fish a shad body anywhere, from my home waters of New England to the Gulf of America and beyond.

And that just might be its greatest advantage in the surf: confidence.