Shad at Willard - two years???

[Trent_S]

Hi Willard fishing experts. This is a bio-tech question. I hope folks like TubeDude will respond. First the questions then the reasoning.

Q1) Are the shadlets that make it through the winter still small enough for the wipers to eat them the next spring?

Q2) Will those surviving shadlets move to "openness" in the spring prior to the new Young of the Year (YOY) shadlets moving out to openness and schooling up?

Reasoning: Some seem to catch Wipers on larger shad patterned cranks around mid-June, but TubDude said they will not start patterning on the YOY until around end of July.

Thanks in advance for enlightening me on why those larger cranks are working in mid-June.
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[Anglinarcher]

Pat will respond, that I am sure. But, until.....

I use to fish around shad in Colorado and Louisiana and have dealt with Threadfin and Gizzard shad before. In both areas, and with both species, the 2nd year shad are still small enough for even Small Mouth Bass and 3rd year is well within Large Mouth Bass size.

In fact, the truth is that a predator species will eat a bait/fish that stretches from the tip of its nose to the anus vent. Granted, that is the upper end, but they will do it, and for a 20 inch Wiper, that means that the shad could be around ......... well let's say that no threadfin could ever be too big and few Gizzard shad would ever make it. It should be noted that Willard are Gizzard shad so they are the larger of the two shad species.

So, yes, the 2nd year, and even the 3rd year will be available to the Walleyes, Wipers, Catfish, etc.

Next question, open water? Yes, the later generation shad will be more open water in their behavior. But, they will move to follow the food so when the plankton start they will follow the concentrations. I find that shad do not avoid the shore.

[Northman]

You should PM Tube Dude and pay him to get a copy of his CD write up on Willard Bay. It is the most comprehensive information currently available for your Willard Bay Questions.

Willard will give you great fishing one day and hand your hat to you the next.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]First of all, gizzard shad are quite different from their smaller cousins...threadfin shad. They grow much larger, much faster and are more tolerant of colder water temps.

Gizzard shad in Willard may begin spawning in April and the spawn continues through May and into June some years. That means that late in their first year there may be shad from only a couple of inches to some as large as 5-6 inches. But by the time winter sets in, most of the smallest shad die off since they can no longer find enough food (zooplankton) to eat and have not progressed to being able to live on other foods. The survivors are now larger than many of the predators can eat.

By mid-winter, there are not many shad small enough to feed the predators and they (predators) enter a period of survival mode...eating anything they can find. That includes everything from midge larvae to baby catfish and includes crawdads, log perch and the fry of sunfish, crappies and carp. But the carp also grow fast and are not on the menu very long either.

Until newly hatched shad fry are large enough each year for the predators to pattern on, you can catch the larger fish on almost anything they perceive as being edible. That includes nightcrawlers, minnows, cut bait, mussels, etc. But many predators will also hit a much wider range of lures than they will when they are focused on shad...later in the year. Anglers report catches of wipers, cats, walleyes and crappies on lures of all sizes and colors during the months before these fish are able to make a living on shad-of-the-year.

Once the new shad crop begins to reach munchable size their "fan club" (predators) becomes more selective. Suddenly, the large cranks that worked on your last trip don't produce much...if anything. And anglers scaling down to very small shad imitating lures do much better. As the shad grow, so will the size of the most productive lures. By late August the fast-growing shad will be mostly in the 2-3 inch range and so will the most effective lures.

Most shad-munching predators tend to follow their food supply. And the shad follow theirs...which are plankton and other aquatic invertebrates...as well as algae and other goodies as they grow and change. Winds can play a big part in where shad might be hanging out. If the winds are strong and sustained they can push shad food closer to one part of the lake than another...and often closer to the shore. So it can pay to search along wind-blown shorelines. That is where the shad will be congregated...and the predators follow the shad.

Here is an excerpt from my work on Willard Bay. It was compiled from a lot of research...as well as with much help from Chris Penne of DWR. Thanks Chris.


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[Trent_S]

Thanks Pat for this large write up on shad. I hope you will indulge me with more questions. I should be getting your CD in the mail in about two days.

What stimulates the shad to move from shore to "openness" in the spring and when does it happen at Willard? It seems they move from shore to openness about mid-June after getting to about 3/4" long (correct?). Is the zoo plankton happening more in the middle than the shores at that time (water temps?)? At what size do the shad start to school? Thx.
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[Trent_S]

Thx. I did order his CD. It should be to me in two more days.
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[Trent_S]

Thanks for the info. Hope to meet you at Willard some time. I assume from your user name you like to shoot carp?
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[TubeDude]

[quote Trent_S] What stimulates the shad to move from shore to "openness" in the spring and when does it happen at Willard? It seems they move from shore to openness about mid-June after getting to about 3/4" long (correct?). Is the zoo plankton happening more in the middle than the shores at that time (water temps?)? At what size do the shad start to school? Thx.[/quote]

[#0000FF]Like most species, shad movements are motivated by food and comfort. They go where the food is and where the temps are more to their liking. They do not have little GPS units or a map of Willard. They simply wander around in schools of their fellow hatchlings...of similar size...continuously on the lookout for better feeding areas. Sometimes they can be found in the "openness". At other times they will be closer to the shorelines or even back in the marinas. Every trip requires some cruising and scoping with sonar. Anglers cannot always predict where they will be. No easy indicators to follow. Shad may be anywhere...at any time...for any reason. Simple. Right?

Shad school from the moment they hatch...with thousands of others from the same spawn. As they get older and encounter other schools they may mingle with the others...or break off into smaller schools. And after reaching a few inches in size they may join up with other schools with shad of several different sizes.

Large adult shad...up to 18 inches...may become more solitary...cruising and feeding by themselves or in loose company with a few others of similar size. The largest schools are typically made up of smaller shad. And those schools shrink as predators work them over. Some small schools of small shad may be completely wiped out by wipers during a frantic boil session. Any escapees do not last long without the protective diversion of having a large school around them. Strength and survival in numbers.

One other note...from the original questions. Once shad grow beyond about 4-5 inches in Willard they do not get eaten as much by predators. I suspect it does not have as much to do with length as with the changing physical characteristics of older shad. They get the aforementioned "sawbelly" along their undersides. That makes them less appealing than
smaller shad...with no spines or rough bellies.

During the past 15 years I have been Willard Bay I have filleted a lot of cats, walleyes, wipers and crappies from that pond. I almost always check the stomach contents and I can attest that I have never caught a predator of any size with a shad larger than about 4 inches in its innards. Some have had larger bluegills, perch, crappies, small cats, carp and crawdads. But never a larger shad. The preferred size...when available seems to be between 2-3 inches.
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[Anglinarcher]

Once in a while I shoot carp, but not as much as my handle would suggest.

My youngest daughter gave me that name many years ago when she combined my two biggest "addictions".

I have always loved fishing, and when I get tired of fishing I go fishing. LOL

But... I also traveled a lot for work and found that dragging a boat on an airplane to a far off destination was not possible. Even Alaska won't let me hitch up a boat to the back of the jet. So, I started taking my archery equipment. Yes, you can get hard cases and travel with archery equipment and in most larger cities you can find indoor archery ranges. The Salt Lake area has several of them.

For many years I became quite competative as an amature, even winning the Oregon Games in 1999 in the Freestyle Compound division. I have won many other regional torunaments as well.

So, my daughter took the Anglining and cut it to Anglin, added to Archer, and it stuck.

[MichiganAngler]

Pat, have you ever caught a shad on hook/line up there? Sometimes I'll be pulling four cranks on planer boards through schools ten feet thick. I always swear I'll end up snagging one someday, but never have. The only time I've ever seen them is when a wiper or walleye pukes them up in the livewell.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]I have had a couple hooked on small crappie jigs and they jumped and fought like baby tarpon. But I got neither of them to my tube. However, my wife did bring one in and thought it was a carp. I saw it, told her it was a shad...and illegal to possess...took a picture and sent it back in the water. Like at least one of the shad I hooked, hers smacked a small chartreuse tube with a hot red head.
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I have heard of other guys hooking them on small jigs, as well as snagging them on the troll. I wish they were more like the American shad in the rivers of northern California. I have caught lots of those and they are super fighters. I wouldn't mind giving a few of the bigger ones in Willard some exercise, even if they are mandatory release.
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