02-03-2014, 05:51 PM
[#0000FF]The biggest dieoff of shad happens in November, when the water temps drop low enough to reduce the zooplankton numbers. Baby shad cannot find enough nourishment and the combination of hunger and cold kill large numbers of them. I have been on the lake outside the north marina some late fall mornings when the top of the water was covered with dead and dying baby shad. The terns and gulls were diving on them and you would have thought there was a wiper boil going on. This situation happens during years when there is a late spring and a late spawn for the shad...like the past couple of years.
Here's a pic of a paper-thin shadlet I picked off the top of the water last year. It should have been almost 3" by that time.
There is always some shad dieoff during the winter. Even though gizzard shad are hardier than threadfin shad...coldwise...some of them don't make it. And, yes, the predators give them a proper "burial".
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Here's a pic of a paper-thin shadlet I picked off the top of the water last year. It should have been almost 3" by that time.
There is always some shad dieoff during the winter. Even though gizzard shad are hardier than threadfin shad...coldwise...some of them don't make it. And, yes, the predators give them a proper "burial".
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