20 June 12, 2020 MAP FEATURE
VOL.39 • ISS. 13
The silvery fish leaped out of the
clear water and then surged on one
last run. It was Memorial Day 1969 and
this was the first time that I had ever fished
for or hooked a shad. I was using a light
spinning rod with a Mitchell Garcia 300
reel and 4 lb. test line of indeterminate
origin.
I worked the dogged battler toward me
and finally landed it in the cold waters
of the American River at Ancil Hoffman
Park. I admired the fish, an anadromous
member of the herring family with a
metallic body and dark spots on its
shoulder, and put it on a stringer. I had
just caught a fish that I would spend
thousands of hours pursuing for the rest of
my life.
I had hooked a shad – but that first shad
had also hooked me. Since that time, I
have caught countless numbers of shad
in the American River, as well as in the
Sacramento and Feather rivers.
Fifty one years later on Memorial Day
2020, anglers were still fishing the river
on a warm evening at the beginning of
a heatwave. The world has changed
dramatically, much for the worse,
since then. The fishing wasn’t as good
as it once was, due to the export of
water through the state and federal
water projects, other water diversions,
pollution of our rivers with an array ot
toxics and other factors.
But anglers, young and old alike,
were still avidly pursuing
shad with spinning
gear in the
beginning
of a
The American River at Harrington Access was packed with anglers, rafters, swimmers and kayakers on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
Exploring the Mysteries of American River Shad During the Time of Coronavirus
heatwave at Harrington Access. Success
was mixed, with anywhere from zero
to four shad per rod, but in these crazy
coronavirus times, the shad is still a fish
that attracts big crowds of anglers. And
in years with heavy precipitation and
abundant river flows, shad fishing can still
be very good when you hit it right.
The shad is one of the most popular
– and yet mysterious fish – that anglers
pursue on California’s Central Valley
rivers in the spring. Shad are known for
the great fights that they provide on light
spinning and fly gear, as well as for the
fine tablefare they offer when smoked,
pickled or baked.
American shad, rather than going
back to their specific tributary rivers
like salmon and steelhead tend to do, go
concentrate on where the flows in the
river system are the
highest. When
flows are high
on the
American,
you can
expect a
significant
number
of fish,
including
those
spawned on
the Sacramento
and
Feather, to make a
right turn into the river
at Discovery
Park.
Shad,
like
striped
The Jim Jones Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge below the Sunrise Vehicle Bridge is named
after one of the premier conservation leaders on the American River.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
bass, are a native to the Eastern Seaboard.
Shad were first introduced to the West
Coast from the Hudson River in New
York in 1871. After shipment across
the country in 8-gallon milk cans, the
California Fish Commission released
about ten thousand shad from the Hudson
River into the Sacramento River. (http://
fishbull.noaa.gov/1094/1094pearcy.pdf)
The fish naturally occurs on the
Atlantic Coast from the Sand Hill River
in Labrador to the St. Johns River in
Florida. By 1891, the fish had expanded
its range on the West Coast as far as
Alaska. (https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/
factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=491)
Since then, the feisty herring have
migrated from saltwater every year to
spawn in the American and other Central
Valley rivers. In addition to the Sacramento
and San Joaquin River systems,
shad migrate into the Russian,
Klamath, Trinity and other rivers.
Few studies have been
conducted in California on shad
populations, although studies have
been conducted on them in other states
where they are found. One thing that
is for sure: their numbers have declined
Cody poses with his shad just after catching it the
American at Harrington Access on Memorial Day.
Photo by DAN BACHER, Fish Sniffer Staff.
since the beginning of state and federal
water exports from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta in 1967.
The annual California Department
of Fish and Wildlife mid water trawl
survey, where the young-of-the-year
shad and other fish species are surveyed
at a numbers of locations throughout the
estuary, showed a 97.7 percent overall
shad decline from 1967 through 2015,
according to Bill Jennings, Executive
Director of the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance.
The decline of shad occurs in the context
of the overall collapse of Delta fish
populations, due to the massive export of
water by state and federal water pumping
facilities on the Delta. From 1967 through
2015, populations of striped bass, Delta
smelt, longfin smelt, splittail and threadfin
shad also declined by 99.7, 98.3, 99.9,
98.5 and 93.7 percent, respectively.
The Central Valley Project Improvement
Act (CVPIA) of 1992 directed
the Secretary of Interior to double the
naturally spawning populations of all
anadromous species, including salmon,
steelhead, sturgeon, American shad and
striped bass, by 2002. Of course like many
laws protecting fish in California, this law
has been very poorly implemented.
While they are most common in the
spring, adult shad can be seen or caught in