The striper will start to decrease the number of large shad and that will make more forage for the smaller shad. This in truth will speed up the reproduction of the bait. What this chain reaction does is to put more of a useable forage base into the system for small sport fish like bass, and crappie. Finding these large desirable shad can sometimes pose a problem if you don't know where to look. Large gizzard shad like to feed and sun themselves on long mud flats.
Most lakes have areas that possess flats somewhere .
Usually, even in the hot summer, the best flats to try are in the back of the creeks. During winter, with several fronts coming through, the shad often will move off the flats and hold in a little deeper water, making them very difficult to find and hard to catch. A good way to spot gizzard shad is to watch for them flipping on top of the water. If you don't see any shad flipping and are not having any success in catching shad, move out to where the flat breaks into the channel. The bait may be a little more spread out but they should be catchable.