© 2021
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KJJP-FM 105.7 is currently operating at 15% of power, limiting its signal strength and range in the Amarillo-Canyon area. This due to complicated problems with its very old transmitter. Local engineers are continuing to work on the transmitter and are consulting with the manufacturer to diagnose and fix the problems. We apologize for this disruption and service as we work as quickly as possible to restore KJPFM to full power. In the mean time you can always stream either the HPPR Mix service or HPPR Connect service using the player above or the HPPR app.

High Plains Outdoors: Annual Shad Spawn

Luke Clayton
Cedar Creek guide Jason Barber with freshly caught shad.

This week, Luke discusses the annual shad spawn. This is a period of bounty not only for game fish, such as white bass, catfish and hybrid stripers (wipers), but the angler as well!

Shad pull close to the shore at night to feed on zooplankton and by daylight each morning, catching is usually very good. Best bait is the shad that the game fish are feeding upon and a few throws of a four-foot cast net usually supplies all the bait necessary for a morning of fishing.

Luke prefers 17-pound test line with a foot or so of 10-pound test and a gold Aberdeen #2 crappie hook. Hang ups often occur and the light leader allows the 'break off' to occur at the terminal end of the line, near the hook rather than the mainline itself.

To learn more about what Luke is up to, visit catfishradio.org.

Outdoors writer, radio host and book author Luke Clayton has been addicted to everything outdoors related since his childhood when he grew up hunting and fishing in rural northeast Texas. Luke pens a weekly newspaper column that appears in over thirty newspapers.