Anybody else seeing dead shad minnows?

[drawalot]

Dad and I went crappie fishing a while this afternoon below Watts Bar dam and then at Cottonport creek. No crappie but we saw tons of dead shad and looked to be a couple of thousand gulls eating them up. Is anybody else seeing this in other areas?
I'm wondering if the crappie are eating them because we caught zip today.

 

[stik]

we see a shad die-off every year. i remember years when the banks were carpeted with dead shad.

 

[J Hartman]

I've seen a million "shad" they had a blue spot (circle) on their back. what Kinde of shad Is that?

 

[stik]

I've seen a million "shad" they had a blue spot (circle) on their back. what Kinde of shad Is that?

threadfins

 

[bowriter]

I use to see a girl who acted a lot like one.

 

[DOC1187]

yes i've seen them too

 

[J Hartman]

are they worth catching and selling as bait? Like to the local bait shops etc.?

 

[B.D.]

They are worth catching and USING as bait. I don't know about selling them - threadfins are extremely hard to keep alive in captivity for any reasonable period of time. Most shops wouldn't want the hassle, and even if they did, most customers wouldn't know how to keep the threadfin they bought alive for a day on the lake.

Poindexter's in Gallatin sells cut shad (gizzard shad, not threadfin) and shad guts for catfish bait, or at least they used to. I think there was a marina on Tim's Ford that used to sell live gizzard shad for striper bait. But other than that, I don't know of any shop that's willing to mess with them.

bd

 

[A.K.A.]

Isn't it illegal to catch and then sale those from the lakes? All of the shad that I've seen were about 1.5" - 2"

 

[B.D.]

I think there are some commercial fishing regs on shad trawls, but I don't think it is completely illegal. I'd have to go back and read the regs to know for sure. I certainly can't think of any reason to restrict harvest - most of our reservoirs have more than enough shad to go around.

Threadfin shad are a lot smaller than gizzard shad. Their average size is around the 2" that you were seeing. They are temperature sensitive and get stressed by cold weather, leading to big die-offs in the winter.

bd