Todd Asher

Capt. Todd Asher is a freshwater striped bass specialist who fishes the dam boils, locks, and tailraces of the southeastern United States. When a dam generates and flushes disoriented shad downstream, stripers stack in the current to feed, and Asher knows how to catch them in that heavy moving water. Known as Shad Nasty, he understands generation timing, boat positioning, and presentation in current. In his In The Spread video, Asher teaches striper fishing around dam boils and locks, from reading the water to feeding the fish.

Instructor's videos

When a dam starts generating and the water below it turns to churning boils and hard current, most anglers see chaos. Todd Asher sees a feeding zone. Capt. Todd Asher is a freshwater striped bass specialist who has built his reputation on one of the most exciting and least understood ways to catch them: fishing the dam boils, locks, and tailraces of the southeastern United States, where big stripers stack up to feed in moving water.

There is a reason those spots produce. When a dam pulls water through its turbines, it flushes shad downstream disoriented and stunned, and striped bass know it. They pile into the current seams and eddies below the dam to ambush an easy meal, and the harder the water is moving, the better the bite can be. It is fast, powerful fishing in heavy current, and it is Asher's wheelhouse. His handle, Shad Nasty, says it all, since the whole game is built around the shad that stripers key on.

Fishing water like this well takes real skill, and that is what Asher teaches. He understands how generation schedules turn the bite on and off, where fish position relative to the boils and turbulence, and how to hold a boat and present a bait in current that will push you around if you let it. He knows when to throw a swimbait or bucktail into the wash, when to get live shad in front of them, and how to read the water below a dam or around a lock to find the fish that are actually feeding.

In his In The Spread video, Asher breaks down striped bass fishing around dam boils and locks, from reading current and timing the generation to positioning and presentation for stripers holding in the rush. If you want to catch stripers where the water is meanest, learn it from the man they call Shad Nasty.