I snagged a shad last week near south st. paul that was about the size of the palm of your hand(but more oval shaped obviously). I was just wondering how big they can get and will the walleyes eat one of those really big shad like that? I’m guessing it was a threadfin shad, I don’t think there’s gizzard shad up here, or at least I have never seen one.
Oh yeah, there are gizzard shad up here. I’ve seen some big ones, too. Maybe 8″ – 10″ long.
Down here we have gizzard shad. I helped our DRN do some shocking one time and we shocked up shad longer than 14 inches. Slimey, stinky things.
We don’t have threadfin shad this far north. We do have gizzard shad in large numbers in the Mississippi below Coon Rapids dam. Most of the young of year (YOY) shad die each fall/winter because they are not well adapted for cold water. In Lake Pepin/Pool 4 a YOY gizzard shad will routinely get 6.0″-9.0″ before fall. As for maximum size we have sampled them up to ~20″ in length. Recently we began to age some of the larger gizzard shad using otoliths. What we have found so far indicates that just as walleye and other popular gamefish tend to live longer the farther north they are living our gizzard shad (that are living near the northernmost part of their range) have a potential age near the high end of what has been recorded in the literature. Our current record for the oldest shad aged was a 18.5″ individual that was 9 years old when we aged it.
Thanks Nick!
Here is a picture. Sort of a gray back silver sides and belly with yellow pectoral fins.
20151002_124525.jpg
We don’t have threadfin shad this far north. We do have gizzard shad in large numbers in the Mississippi below Coon Rapids dam. Most of the young of year (YOY) shad die each fall/winter because they are not well adapted for cold water. In Lake Pepin/Pool 4 a YOY gizzard shad will routinely get 6.0″-9.0″ before fall. As for maximum size we have sampled them up to ~20″ in length. Recently we began to age some of the larger gizzard shad using otoliths. What we have found so far indicates that just as walleye and other popular gamefish tend to live longer the farther north they are living our gizzard shad (that are living near the northernmost part of their range) have a potential age near the high end of what has been recorded in the literature. Our current record for the oldest shad aged was a 18.5″ individual that was 9 years old when we aged it.
Curious — so every shad that has an elongated thread attached to its dorsal fin in Pool 2, 3, and 4 is a Gizzard Shad? I’ve snagged quite a few that have that elongated ‘thread’ hanging off the dorsal fin… Always thought they were Threadfin. I am just now learning that BOTH Gizzard and Threadin share the same styled dorsal.
Here you go
Shad-Difference.jpg
Here is a link to a native range map for threadfin shad. They are quite a bit south of the upper pools in Minnesota.
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