Unlimited Shad

[trout-r-us]

A great deal of effort to restore American Shad in that river over quite a few years seems to have proved fruitless.
They stocked many millions from the 90's through about 2017. Apparently, returning stockers were the only thing available during those years.

"In 2021, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science's (VIMS) monitoring data showed American shad at 0% of the Chesapeake Bay Program's shad abundance goal for the James River."
https://thejamesriver.org/about-the-james-river/saving-american-shad/

[trout-r-us]

Thanks for sharing your trips reports. Looks like you all had beautiful weather and calm conditions.

Though I've been on the James many times, I never fished it for Shad. Glad ya caught a bunch.

[ryguy]

Look like great trips.  I was out on Monday, put about 25 in the boat in a few hours.  Taking my daughter tomorrow after school, hopefully the rain holds off.
Hoping to hook into a Striper...

[Woolly Bugger]

New York wants to repopulate the Hudson with shad, the 'poor man's salmon'
Shad fisheries were closed in 2010 after a population collapse

Shad, the "poor man's Salmon," once populated the Hudson River estuary from New York Harbor north to Fort Edward.

The silvery-blue fish, which can grow up to 30 inches, was an important food source in the region and was commercially fished on the Hudson in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming essential during World War II as fishing trawlers were forced from the open Atlantic by the specter of Nazi U-boats.

Shad fisheries were closed in 2010 on the Hudson after a series of population collapses, but New York wants to grow shad populations in the river until recreational catch-and-release is once again possible, with the eventual goal of reopening commercial fishing.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation released a final report in late March laying out how this can be accomplished and setting benchmarks for when the fisheries can be reopened. The DEC sets out a nearer-term goal of returning shad populations to their levels in the mid-1980s, with an eventual goal of returning them to 1940s levels.

Shad populations were already significantly impacted by the 1940s — the first recorded population collapse happened in the mid-1800s — but the DEC sets this goal because dredging in the upper third of the estuary, which filled in many of the braided side channels where shad reproduced, was complete by this time, with the Hudson looking much like it does today.

https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/outdoors/article/ny-wants-repopulate-hudson-shad-17875423.php


Discouraging Report On Hudson Shad Angers Angler-Environmentalist
"It's maddening and saddening at the same time," Riverkeeper's senior habitat restoration manager told Patch.

OSSINING, NY — A new report on the Hudson River American shad concludes that centuries of overfishing and policy decisions have so depleted the population of an economically and ecologically important migratory fish species — which once supported a robust fishing industry — that its recovery isn't assured, and could take decades even with strong conservation efforts.

In its Recovery Plan for Hudson River American Shad, the state Department of Environmental Conservation provided a roadmap, outlining steps to mitigate the numerous challenges facing the iconic species.

"By implementing the strategies outlined in this plan, DEC will work to ensure a sustainable future for American shad," conservation department Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement when the report was released.

But just how pessimistic the researchers are may be inferred from the quote with which they began the report:

When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure. There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books ... Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong–these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
Winston Churchill, 1935
"It's maddening and saddening at the same time," George Jackman, senior habitat restoration manager at Riverkeeper, told Patch.

https://www.wwaytv3.com/blue-monday-shad-fry-back-after-three-year-hiatus/

[Woolly Bugger]

Cut and Retie Podcast:

This week, Jimmy Fee, "Neighbor" Steve McIntyre, and Captain Eric Kerber load into the Bunka to snort the sweet essence of American shad slime, we fail history class and make asses out of ourselves in front of the entire Pacific Northwest, and bump a record fish off the line with a hair dryer.

[Woolly Bugger]

One angler claimed his boat had brought 387 hickory shad over the gunwales in a single day.

is that you Fred?

Keeping Score: A Friendly Competition During the Spring Shad Run
The shad fishing this season was so epic, so off-the-charts, that the author and his buddy decided to make things even more interesting one afternoon

https://www.fieldandstream.com/hickory-shad-fly-fishing/

sorry the full story is behind a paywall...

[Woolly Bugger]

Hickory Shad are being caught on the Neuse River in Kinston!

[Woolly Bugger]

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[Woolly Bugger]

From milk jugs to millions: How American shad took over

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The Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River enables shad and salmon to ascend. While some observers speculate that thriving shad negatively impacts salmon, researchers can find no evidence that such is the case. Photo by Thomas Quinn


In early 1871, American shad was a popular food and sport fish, and the California Fish Commission engaged Seth Green, regarded as the father of fish culture in North America, to transport more than 12,000 American Shad fry by train to California.

Green filled milk jugs with shad fry and took them onto a transcontinental train. After a seven-day journey, he arrived in California with 10,000 little fish still alive, and he released them into the Sacramento River near the town of Tehama.

The project turned out to be more successful than Green could have imagined. From Sacramento, shad colonized and were introduced to rivers all along the West Coast. The Columbia River now sees shad annual runs of as many as 7 million fish, and shad are now the most abundant anadromous fish in the river. They make up over 90 percent of the recorded upstream migrants in some years and raise concerns about their impact on diminished salmon runs.

https://www.nationalfisherman.com/from-milk-jugs-to-millions-how-american-shad-took-over