Gizzard Shad life cycle ??

[AndyS]

They seem to live in our big rivers but we seem to hear very little about the life cycle of this fish.
In 1999 over 8,000 Gizzard Shad passed through the fish ladder on the Raritan river and over 3,000 passed through in 2000 and 2002.
One time floating down the North branch just above the confluence I witnessed great shoals of bait fish, they looked like peanut bunker. I had to rub my eyes because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Massive schools of bait, guessing now they were Gizzard Shad. That was the only place I saw this, never on the main stem of the Raritan or any other river. You would think with those kind of numbers you would see fish busting on bait and massive schools of Gizzard Shad fry but I never see any.

[ScowardNJ]

They show up in huge numbers every spring in the tidal headwaters of the Hackensack. They get pretty big and stink to high hell. Sometimes schoolie bass are chasing them. The juveniles are so thick in the upper river that Suez removes them from the Oradell Resivior treatment plant’s intakes with front end loaders. You can see huge schools of them cruising around the res. They also run up the river to the trout stocked areas in River Vale and Old Tappan.

http://www.njfishing.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=119079&stc=1&d=1511120465

[thmyorke1]

I've seen big groups of baitfish in the shallows of both rivers, branches and main stem. Once a stack of young fallfish on the south branch. But I don't think I've ever seen any shad schools other than American shad

[FASTEDDIE29]

If your fishing rivers constantly and "NOT" wearing polarized sunglasses you have some issues!!! You have no clue what your missing!!!
#buysomecostasforxmas

[AndyS]

Funny how they seem to enjoy brackish water also.

[thmyorke1]

If your fishing rivers constantly and "NOT" wearing polarized sunglasses you have some issues!!! You have no clue what your missing!!!
#buysomecostasforxmas

True. It's like x-ray vision at times.

[saxmatt]

I've seen huge schools of them in the Millstone River.

[Mark B.]

The schools that I've seen are juvenile American Shad.

I’ve rarely encountered schools of juvenile Gizzard Shad.

I believe the reason is that they grow very fast, as they can consume both animal & plant material, due to their bird-like gizzard.

As you know they get quite large. Consequently, only large predator fish can handle them. The reason NJDF&W stocks Mercer Lake, Deal Lake,……with Esocids.

[Heronimo42]

They're thick in Carnegie and I've caught LMB's that have GS tail's sticking out of their throats. Gizzard's are actually fun to snag on light tackle.

[Ken Lyons]

Do American Shad get above the dam at DIP?

[AndyS]

No, NOTHING gets above the falls at DIP.

NJDF&W stocks Muskellunge and trout in Lake Hopatcong, good stuff.

[thmyorke1]

I met a gent fishing the lamington once that said he caught a shad up there. He seemed trustworthy. I'd like to imagine someone threw shad up the falls upon catching them. But honestly if you've ever seen how high the river can get, I'd say it's not impossible for a fish thatis built to swim upstream for incredible lengths could pass the head gates.

This spring we did have water that went that high too, check the usgs history for the main stem. Right around the time shad were migrating up river.

Wouldn't it explain why you saw gizzard shad up in North Branch, Andy?

[Chrisper4694]

saw this in the delaware a month or so ago, little bait everywhere (looked like peanut bunker, i'm assuming baby shad) I fished it top to bottom...nothing was eating, no hits, no sign of any bait being taken from the surface even though they were fluttering EVERYWHERE and i mean EVERYWHERE like a blanket.

[Mark B.]

saw this in the delaware a month or so ago, little bait everywhere (looked like peanut bunker, i'm assuming baby shad) I fished it top to bottom...nothing was eating, no hits, no sign of any bait being taken from the surface even though they were fluttering EVERYWHERE and i mean EVERYWHERE like a blanket.

Those were juvenile American Shad migrating back to the ocean. After spending 3 – 6 years in the salt, they return as adults to the same freshwater river to spawn.

Juvenile Gizzard Shad remain in the fresh & brackish waters in which they were spawned, & grow very rapidly. They don’t migrate to the ocean, & adult Gizzard Shad don’t migrate from saltwater to freshwater to spawn.