Where are the Shad?

Folks, I haven’t touched on the spring shad run in the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, but it hasn’t been that spectacular this year. I reported that guys were catching them, and when, in my reports. However, most of the people doing the catching were die-hard anglers who target them every year. Many others have gone fishing for them, and have been disappointed.

Now, one year of poor fishing is nothing to raise a fire alarm about, and I want to make this clear to people. There are many reasons why we could have a poor run:

  • Cyclical nature of fishing
  • Less than optimal weather conditions, ie. Too hot, cold, or rainy. Different streamflow or ocean current conditions as a result of the weather.
  • A poor birth rate in the past year or years can contribute to a poor “year class” which affects biomass down the road.
  • Predators and disturbances preventing eggs from being fertilized.
  • More people targeting them (This is the possibility that few want to talk about, because it promotes strong opinions on both sides, and on many boards ends up with insults or bad feelings.)
  • More people joining the community of fishermen, which means more people are fishing overall, or have started to target that species. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s a free country, and every who wants to fish should have the right to do so. However, greater participation by new anglers will probably affect the biomass in years ahead, and we should start talking about how better to share our precious resources.
I decided to begin these specific threads in response feedback about the fishing reports. Some people said: “Joe, how can you be so positive in your WIR reports each week if many people, especially those who don’t have a boat, are going out and catching nothing each time?”

One response to that is they are not fishing at the right times.

In the case of shad, you really need to fish at times when the tide and light conditions are optimal. All other things being equal, you should catch more shad on a cloudy day than a sunny day, unless you are fishing right before a big storm, which changes barometric pressure, and sometimes puts the bite off.

Also, if the current is too strong in the rivers due to rainwater runoff, conditions will be less than optimal. If you can get the right condition of outgoing tide, current, and light, your chances are better.

Unfortunately, many people can’t time all these conditions for optimal effectiveness. We all have jobs, family responsibilities, and other commitments. We fish when we can.

Another response is that the healthy bass populations are eating more shad, which affects the biomass overall. It’s interesting to note that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. A diehard shad fisherman will tell you the shad numbers are down. They will cite many possibilities for this, and the question of whether striped bass eat too many shad comes up time and time again.

A diehard striped bass fisherman, particularly if they have been fishing for decades, will also grudgingly admit that the bass numbers are “possibly” down, and cite many different reasons why they think this is true.

We all have reasons for arriving at different conclusions, and everyone has a right to their opinion. It’s extremely difficult to prove, with science, which opinion is more valid than another.

If you are getting skunked when you fish for striped bass and bluefish from the surf, here is some helpful info:
Large predators, particularly striped bass, are low light feeders that feed predominantly at sunrise, dusk, and in the night. You will always have situations where people catch big striped bass and bluefish in the daytime. However, these mostly involve times where there predators are coaxed into a frenzy by the presence of large bait schools, particularly large bunker schools.
The continued presence of healthy bunker does more to help promote surf fishing than many other factors. Without bunker, pickings would be mighty slim, and some people might give up fishing for good.

I addressed these possibilities to help people catch more fish, but I also want to address the most serious (and hardest to prove) possibility:

What if there are not “more fish” to catch?


What if we are really making a difference in the fish population, and will not know the scientific truth for a few years? Is it pointless to try to talk about it now?

I’m putting this out there for anglers who want to spend a little time, research this topic, learn from the research, and form their own opinions. If I can get you folks to think about these possibilities, even if you disagree in the end, I will have done my job.

We, as anglers and sportsmen, represent a HUGE lobby that could get many things done, if we could all agree at the same time on one or more issues. Yet, we are highly fractionalized into many different groups and clubs.

Some of these groups feel they should not get involved in something if another group is supporting it. Others, who have less than a decade fishing experience, haven’t seen the vast changes that can occur in our different fisheries.

All I’m asking is for people to do some research, educate themselves, and get more involved, before the well-organized members of the PEW trust get involved and try to take our choices away.

(If you have never heard of the PEW Trust, google them and learn how they are behind many of the MPAs and Marine closures in this country.) They also cleverly try to work behind the scenes by putting out money for scientific research, done by "fishermen". this allows every piece of material they publish to have an air of legitimacy. I do not have enough info to stand up and challenge their methods. However, it's my opinion that they are very clever in getting involved "behind the scenes" so people who suspect their goal is to restrict fishing will not sound the alarm.

This info took a long time to put together for you folks. I will continue to provide threads like this when I can, because I feel it's worth it to raise awareness. I also welcome comment from any people who can give us proof of positive things organizations like the PEW trust has done for fishermen. Democratic debate encouraged here.