Understanding Seasonal bait migration patterns

[kwin]

There are only threadfin shad in California

[BentRod]

good article fishbreath

[fishdo0do0]

i've seen anchovy, smelt, and sardines. that's why anchovies work great for stripers!

[TroutOnly]

Same deal as always find the shad find the predators,,,,,,,,,,,study youre graph everytime you fish and it will be easier than you thought,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,freshblood is stripeys favorite,,,,,,,,,

[Geraldlim]

Thanks for the great info everyone. That one article was SOOO helpful - thanks Fishbreath! It has already helped in visualizing how I work my lure.

T. O. - that is exactly the goal of this thread - if I can find the bait through the seasons, I can find the predators.

Are there specific temperatures or specific months where the movements occur, eg when they move into and out of the coves, when they come to the surface, and when spawning occurs?

[Fishbreath]

Here is another article by the same author that might help with that. Wayne Gustaveson has been a fisheries manager at Lake Powell for many years. A lot of the same information as the other article here, but maybe a little more on the daily movement patterns and spawning cycle.


Bass Biology
Threadfin Shad: Food for Thought
By Wayne Gustaveson

March/April 1995

Most bass waters in the West are man-made impoundments without a natural population of predator and prey fish. The fisheries consist of intentionally introduced sport fish that were present when the pond was formed or added later by subsequent introductions. In many cases the naturally occurring minnows cannot supply enough forage to allow the bass population to expand in numbers to the satisfaction of the anglers that use that fishery. More times than not another forage fish is needed. In the West, the fish of choice is the Threadfin shad.

The name comes from the elongated fin ray on the trailing end of the dorsal fin which extends almost to the caudal fin. It looks just like a thread hanging from the dorsal fin. The slender silver fish sport a neat, black body spot just behind the gill plate. The fins have a yellow cast in the adults and the backs are an iridescent blue-green. Probably the most important characteristic is that all game fish seem to prefer eating shad to the exclusion of just about anything else except maybe the crayfish.

The text books say Threadfin are widely used as forage because they are an open water fish which use pelagic plankton and are less likely to compete for food with young sport fish who start life in the shallows. They never grow to a large size that would prevent them from being eaten by sport fish, as often happens with their cousin, the gizzard shad. They have an extended spawning season which makes them very prolific and able to maintain their population even against some intense predatory pressure.

Since shad will probably be encountered in most bass waters it would be wise to be armed with a little knowledge about their behavior and characteristics. We will start with spawning - the time when shad are most available to sport fish. Shad are surface spawners that emit an adhesive egg that sticks to the first thing it touches. They spawn at first light in the morning when the water temperature climbs to 65°F or warmer. The favored site is the back of a canyon or cove marked with mats of driftwood, debris, or recently inundated shoreline plant life. The gravid female swims along the surface trailed by 5 or 6 males. In this condition the normally elusive shad can be readily dip-netted from the water and used by anglers. The shad convoy also parades right past hungry bass at prime time during the subdued light of morning. The response is predictable spawning shad providing a quick meal for the grinning bass.

The down side to the shad spawn is that a fisherman who arrives on the pond at 8am may experience some real indifference from bass that have a stomach full of shad to digest. During the spawn it may be necessary to alter the schedule so fishing is down while the shad are actively spawning or later in the day when bass will again become active. It is easy to tell if shad have recently spawned at your fishing hole. Pick up 2-3 floating pieces of drift wood and examine them for shad eggs. The eggs appear as a clear circle that resembles a tiny air bubble that will not burst. They hatch within two days so they will not persist on the wood very long. If eggs are present, shad are spawning and schedules must be altered accordingly.

In clear canyon lakes, particularly those with stripers, shad tend to reside in turbid water in the summer and at great depths in the winter. Spawning occurs in the backs of the canyons where adults can find some turbidity that apparently makes them feel more secure from the relentless pursuit of sight feeding predators such as the striped bass. Adult shad stay in the backs of the canyons as the water warms.

Young, innocent shad leave the back of the canyon for the lush plankton pastures of the open bay. Those that survive the open water striper attack will eventually move back to the turbid water zone. The wiser, juvenile shad will use brush and trees as escape cover. Eventually, most shad will end up in the turbid brushy coves as the summer progresses. Understanding this annual migration cycle will help the bass angler with lure selection and presentation based on shad movements.

It is well known that bass hit surface lures with abandon during the first light on summer mornings and then again in the evenings. That is because shad prowl the shoreline early, then retreat to the depths during the day where they ball up in dense schools. In the evening shad again hit the shallows as they feed on plankton. Bass take advantage of the daily shad movement by feeding voraciously as the school migrates near their ambush point.

Shad are more likely to be eaten by largemouth bass since shad habitat more often overlaps with the brushy shelter that largemouth prefer. Smallmouth reside under ledges and in rocky cracks that provide cover for crayfish. Both bass species feed on whatever happens to swim by. Brush loving largemouth are just more likely to find shad in their brush shelter while rock bound smallmouth are more likely to find a crayfish.

[ToadsToadsOnly]

541584]There are only threadfin shad in California[/QUOTE]
Ive seen huge shad in the feather river up north they are like a pound people fish for them with crappie jigs I always thought those were Gizzard shad. Are they gizzards or thread fin?

[Fishbreath]

I think you must be talking about the American shad. The American shad is a highly migratory anadromous species that returns to its freshwater natal (birth) areas to spawn. It is basically a saltwater fish that comes into the rivers to spawn in freshwater. It can survive the spawn and return to saltwater.

[Geraldlim]

I snagged one of those in Lake Silverwood 20 years ago while trolling for stripers. It weighed about 2-3 lbs, and tasted pretty good if memory serves me.

[Hunter Of Fish]

Yeppers I grew up eating smoked yuba river shad very tasty!