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18 June 9 - 23 , 2017 VOL . 36 • ISS . 13
Kjell Nyothson had a great time battling this feisty American River shad ..
Photo by DAN BACHER , Fish Sniffer Staff .
Unveiling The Mysteries of American River Shad
One of the most popular – and least understood fish – that anglers pursue on California ’ s Central Valley rivers in the spring is the American shad , an anadromous member of the herring family that returns from the ocean to spawn every year .
My favorite place to fish for them is the lower American River , where fishing for them was just as popular when I started fishing for them in high school as it is now . Shad are known for the great fights that they provide on light spinning and fly tackle , as well as for the fine tablefare they offer when smoked , pickled or baked .
On my latest venture to the river this spring , a crowd of 50 people was fishing in the Harrington Access area in Carmichael . Most reported some success , although some complained about the bite being
Sergey Voznyuk of Sacramento displays a hefty shad that he landed at Harrington ’ s Access on the American River this May .
Photo by DAN BACHER , Fish Sniffer Staff .
This is a small male shad from the American River . The males show in numbers first during the run , followed later by the larger female shad .
Photo by DAN BACHER , Fish Sniffer Staff . slower than it had been . Most of the fish were small males from 13 to 16 inches long , with a few larger fish mixed in .
Sergey Voznyuk of Sacramento reported catching 9 shad in two hours of fishing while drift fishing with a 1 / 32 ounce pink jig head with a chartreuse grubtail , weighed down with a ¼ oz . split shot /
Kjell Nyoth also caught 4 fish while using grubs on spinning gear . The biggest fish brought in by any other the anglers weighed around 2-1 / 2 pounds .
This has been a good year to date on the lower American , due to the heavy flows on the river all winter and spring . Releases from Nimbus Dam at press time were 9,500 cfs . 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 .
American shad , like striped 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 . 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 known is their numbers have declined 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-theyear shad and other fish species are surveyed at a numbers of locations throughout the estuary , has shown 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 , according to Jennings .
On a positive note , the abundance index – a relative measure of abundance - for American shad , rose from