I had never seen one around here before or that big either.
When I was in the USAF and was stationed in TX we often used threadfin and hickories as bait but they were nowhere near the size of the one Crafty caught.
we have a real good hickory shad run in the niantic river most people use shad darts or twisty grub tails. we use them to chunk for the big boy stripers.
There was a ton in so.co last spring for a good month, all jumbos. Got them on cocahoes and shad darts with tiny pork rinds. Fun as hell catching them when there jumping out of the water when you reel em in.