Anadromous fish are those that spend their lives in the ocean but migrate up freshwater rivers to spawn. Mention anadromous and most people think of salmon, but there is another anadromous gamefish that entertains anglers from the St Johns River in Florida to Southern Labrador in Canada.
Shad spend the summer feeding near the Bay of Fundy in Canada. As fall approaches they split up and winter near the mouths of their natal rivers. When they detect the right combination of daylight length and water temperature, shad of four to five years and older enter the rivers to start their spawning migration. American shad will migrate long distances to spawn. In the St Johns River in Florida they have been found 375 miles upriver. The spawning fish select sandy or pebbly shallows and deposit their eggs primarily between sundown and midnight. Females release eggs in batches of about 30,000 eggs, though it has been estimated that as many as 156,000 eggs are deposited by very large fish. Total annual egg production is 200,000-600,000 eggs per female with larger fish producing more.
American shad’s Latin name is Alosa sapidissima, and sapidissima means savory. Shad flesh is described as mild and sweet but is full of many small bones. They are very high in omega 3, and contain nearly twice as much per unit weight as wild salmon. They are also very low in toxins like PCBs, dioxins, and mercury by EPA standards. The American shad has been a valued food fish for centuries and is credited with saving George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War. Many people also consider shad roe to be a delicacy.
While in the ocean American shad eat small planktonic crustaceans. They seldom feed once they enter the rivers on their spawning runs. Most shad harvested from rivers have empty stomachs, but they are opportunistic feeders and are occasionally known to attack small minnows and other prey that resembles their natural forage. Anglers take advantage of this tendency and target shad with small, brightly colored spoons, jigs and flies. They are great targets for light spinning tackle and fly rod and their spirited, acrobatic fights have earned them the nickname “poor man’s tarpon”.
Many thanks go to Reid Hyle, biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission for help with writing this article. For more information on American shad visit http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/sos/spsyn/af/shad/.
~ Greg Stover