I caught two in back-to-back casts while fishing a causeway at Lake Guntersville last month. Both were snagged on the rear hook of my jerkbait but both fully unintentionally.
I’m not sure why I struggle to count them.
I definitely would count a shad or other baitfish hooked in the mouth, and in truth the smaller and more minnow-like it was the more proud I’d probably be of the novelty of the catch. And I typically would count a foul hooked gamefish, since the snagging would never be intentional.
I suppose with most snagged fish I’m inclined to assume they swiped at my bait and missed but I got them sideways when I set the hook. With a jerkbait fished through a big school of shad, it seems more like they just got in the way. That makes them seem less like accomplishments, but I guess not less of “catches.”
As I’ve put my thoughts in written words and looked at it, I seem to have convinced myself that the shad should indeed qualify as a fish species I’ve caught this year.
2026 Fish Species List to Date
- brown trout
- rainbow trout
- spotted bass
- smallmouth bass
- threadfin shad
- largemouth bass
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