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.