Re: Gizzard Shad life cycle ??
 

No, NOTHING gets above the falls at DIP.

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

Re: Gizzard Shad life cycle ??
 

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?

Re: Gizzard Shad life cycle ??
 

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.

Re: Gizzard Shad life cycle ??
 

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.