Will the forecasted cold weather over the next couple of days reduce the numbers of shad in Pool 4? At what temp does this normally happen? I’m heading down on 10/30 and hope the bite will improve by then.
In my experience the shad die off is not a light switch type of thing, it occurs gradually during the winter….
I also dont think its THE trigger for good fall fishing…. though I suppose its A trigger… as it reduces food supply…. I think good fall fishing is partly photo period related (length of day)… partly water temp related….. and maybe partly water level too…. my first trip last fall was October 29 and it was a good one… I would say by that date this year the fishing will be starting pretty good too…
I’m pretty sure it is not the temperature of the water that kills off the young of the year shad but the sudden drop in temp. If the temp goes down slowly they can live a lot later into the year. If we get a real good cold spell and the water temp goes down quickly they will be more likely to die off.
In the south shad are netted and kept in tanks for bait and they reccomend a tank temp of about 50 degrees so shad can handle pretty cold water.
My two cents.
Gator Hunter
perhaps your right… but heres some stuff I found surfing the net just for fun….
“Gull watchers love shad die offs. It seems certain species of shad are
affected by water temperature. Studies on these fish, especially Gizzard
Shad, show that they cannot metabolize fat below a water temp of 39 degrees.
The dead shad have fat reserves on their bodies but it is useless to them in
that state. Like birds in migration that run out of fat reserves, their
bodies look for energy in other areas such as muscle tissue and internal
organs such as kidneys, livers, etc. The only way shad can make it through
these periods is to utilize their organs for basal metabolism. Those shad
washed up on the shore would show signs in these organs of emaciation but
have fat layers on their bodies. “
and
” Adams, S. Marshall, James E. Breck, and Richard B. McLean. 1985. Cumulative stress-induced mortality of gizzard shad in a southeastern U.S. reservoir. Environmental Biology of Fishes 13:103-112.
Abstract.-Starvation was apparently responsible for a large die-off of gizzard shad, Dorosoma cepedianum, in several east Tennessee reservoirs during the spring of 1983. Condition indices, calorific equivalents, lipids, and blood parameters of electrofished (control) shad from Watts Bar Reservoir were significantly higher than these parameters for recently dead shad and for stressed shad, indicating that the stressed and dead fish were at similar levels of physiological condition. We hypothesize that mortality due to starvation resulted from a year-long series of unusual environmental conditions beginning with an abnormally warm spring in 1982 which delayed spawning for some shad, a mild winter in 1982-1983 which increased metabolic demands, and an unusually cool spring in 1983 which delayed food availability. These events may have acted in a cumulative fashion, with each inducing additional increments of stress until lipid stores were depleted to a nonrecovery level, which appears to be about 4% of dry body weight. At least 10% of the adult gizzard shad died of starvation. Most predators were probably not adversely affected by the die-off because of the high availability of shad smaller than 16 cm (total length) and the vulnerability of stressed shad to predation.”
basically I searched on “shad die off”.. and got TONS of hit.. its a nation wide phenomena…. when the water temps drop the shad seem to die.. I saw one report of them dying due to temp shock of sudden drops… so it must be a one two punch… temp shock deaths… AND apparently starvation from being unable to metabolize their fat reserves….. cool huh?
It seems that when the shad are in the dying mode like half swimming to the surface & then falling; a jigging spoon or sonar type lure works pretty good.
Last winter while ice fishing in the Bayport area I observed several large schools of shad on my underwater camera. I observed shad well into December and then they died off rather quickly. When they died off the sturgeon and northern activity picked up as they fed on the shad. I observed sturgeon as shallow as 6′ to 8′ under the ice scavenging on dead shad, the muskies were also cruising the area picking up shad. There also seems to be a shad migration into the warm water discharge at the NSP King Plant and they seem to stay in that warm water most of the winter. I have seen muskie around the NSP outlet in January and February, mainly chasing the shad and other large baitfish in the warm water of the outlet.
Interesting report RiverEyes, way too many shad in Pool 4 last week.
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