One last lonely shad

[JTrick]

So I spent the evening at Gristmill, swinging for steel and stripers.
This little guy comes swimming upstream, floats belly up, rights himself swims up, floats belly up, over and over again. Swims next to me and floats belly up again.
I spent a few minutes resuscitating him and off he goes into deeper water.

Any thoughts??

[Alosa]

Spawned out male shad that's dying naturally?

[STEELIES/26c3]

There's still thousands of shad in the AR...

They're just weary and weak, terrorized by the striped ones and not mush sport for 'Bloody Maria' nor 'Johnny Winter' (who just recently died btw...).

That lil male probably just got chewed on and spit out.

You should have rubbed him on your Clouser minnow~

[JTrick]

Thanks for the info. I was under the impression they were long gone.

Tonight I had a big school of them hanging out in the shallows at my feet. Incredible to see them like that, they were all 10/11 inches. I was hoping some stripers were holding as well, alas no luck.

[Terry Thomas]

Dave Barbieri is still seeing them in the Yuba.

[dpentoney]

We used to catch shad while fly fishing for salmon in the Eel River once in a while this time of year.

[Alosa]

We used to catch shad while fly fishing for salmon in the Eel River once in a while this time of year.

How big? Full adult, or small?

[Ned Morris]

Also how long ago was that on the Eel?

[Alosa]

I tried to get shad from the Eel as part of my research project back in 2010, but couldn't catch any. I heard from multiple people that they were abundant in the Eel till about the mid 90s. No one has offered an explanation as to why they have declined since then. Weird.