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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | One of the things we have all noticed (especially this year) is how many shad there is in the Saginaw Bay and it's River systems. I mean literally tons more of them then we've seen in years, even after what should have been their winter die-off cycle. And I've also been getting calls for ice charter reservations from guys over on Lake St. Claire who are saying the same thing about the abundance of shad in their waters this year. I thought I'd ask my DNRE biologist buddy his thoughts on the matter. Below is my question and his answer.
Question: I know you mentioned that you observed a lot more baitfish in the trawls this past fall. But the shad we're seeing in both the bay and the river this year is off the charts, and more then we've ever witnessed before. The shad are 5 to 5 1/2 inches long, and being seen in water depth from 12 to 19 foot on the bay as well as hundreds swimming through your ice fishing holes while fishing in the river. And even though we noticed some dying with first ice, they seem to be heartier and surviving under the ice this year better then ever. The ice fishing for walleyes up until now has also sucked. Lots of little dinks biting but the bigger fish are either not seen or ignore anything you offer. Any observations about this? Dan.
Answer:
Dan.
Gizzard shad do well in spurts as we have seen in the past. This is obviously a good year for them. We are at the northern limits of their range so they don't do well with our winter temperatures. Usually we loose like 98% of them to over winter mortality. Those that survive usually do so by finding some thermal refuge like a warm water effluent from a power plant or something similar. The few who do survive the winter, grow enormously fast their second year and can get to be the size of a dinner plate. We see them in our survey nets. By that time they are not much good to anything in the way of food, but the juveniles you see there in the summer and early winter make good forage for all predators. Walleyes will eat them.
Its not always clear as to what makes for a good year for shad (why some years we have lots of them, other years not so many). Their abundance used to cycle in opposite sync with alewives (they are closely related; both clupeids). After alewives disappeared from the Bay and Lake Huron, we expected to see lots of gizzard shad but that didn't happen for most years. More recently they have come on strong. Gizzard shad eat periphyton and zooplankton. There has been some evidence to suggest that the food web has stepped up some in the lake this past year.
There are more smelt than in a long time. Alewives remain scarce. I honestly don't know where all the bigger walleyes are. The word on the street is that they moved out into the open water and that's likely mostly true, but I think some additional things may be at work too. I haven't got it all figured out yet, but I am not worried really. Not at this point. I think the population is making adjustments to its new higher density and I am heartened by the strong on-going reproduction/recruitment. We'll know more soon.
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Member
Posts: 1314
Location: Menasha, WI | We're experiencing the same phenomenon here on Winnebago. The difference being that we've had 2 consecutive years of productive shad spawns. Hopefully, the winter will get 'em and the 2011 spawn won't be as successful.
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Location: Berlin | I know with the high unemployment there has been a much larger draw on the system the last two years so having a huge forage base is not the worst thing.
I have a picture of a 16" shad I caught through the ice. They get huge. |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Given this added information, the poor fishing we experienced late last summer and the things we seen on the graph make more sense. Not since the days that the Alewife populations ruled have we seen so many bait balls virtually from top to bottom on the graph. Then throw in the added walleye forage draw to deeper Lake Huron waters from our growing smelt populations, and it's easy to see why our walleyes have lost some interest in artificals.  |
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| I fish Green Bay and it's the same thing here. I have marked literally hundreds of walleyes this winter but not a bite. They are full and have no need to hit our baits. I was always told that they thrive in hot humid dry summers which seems to be right cause every summer It has been wet and cold the fishing seems to better in fall and winter... Just my two cents |
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Member
Posts: 650
| same can be said for Oneida lake here in ny. baitfish from shore to shore. walleyes actually schooling up on the surface. catch reports down quite a bit. |
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