Jeff’s 2025 AR Shad Reports

[robdog]

Just curious, is it too late now to hunt for shad on the lower sac?

[WLREDBAND]

Just curious, is it too late now to hunt for shad on the lower sac?

Yes. They are long gone. The LSAC run, like the American, was very poor this year and was very brief.

[fatbillybob]

Yes. They are long gone. The LSAC run, like the American, was very poor this year and was very brief.

Are there any explanations for this and does the health of the 2025 shad run foretell anything about what species comes next?

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Is the ecosystem the problem or overharvesting?

Other than the Southeast Asians in the Rancho Cordova area, does anyone see any large harvesting going on with the Shad?




___________________________

I have a feeling that the water barons would love to eliminate all the fish in the system so the fishermen would go away.


Are there still as many rafters going down the river as there used to be?


I fished that river for 60 years and cannot exaggerate how good it was back in the day.


I am excited for the Klamath River.

I am excited that they are removing dams all over America and Western Europe with stream restorations as well.


It is time to go over to the Coast, up in the mountains or to Montana.

[WLREDBAND]

Are there any explanations for this and does the health of the 2025 shad run foretell anything about what species comes next?

Shad are poorly understood in CA, and next to nothing is being studied about them. They don't even have basic run size estimates, so they really don't track them. My experience with fishing shad, shows the runs to be highly cyclical in boom/bust cycles. IMNSHO we're definitely in the bust side of things right now. As far as harvest is concerned, I can't speak about harvest on the American, but on the LSAC, virtually no one fishes for them up here in Shastanistan. I rarely see any other boats out and this year, on the most I saw was one other boat.

[Jeff C.]

We had a valuable asset studying shad. He is Dan Hasselman (aka Alosa). He is a doctorate fishery biologist who devoted his studies to shad. I first met him when he was at the University of Washington and more often when he was at UC Santa Cruz. He had since moved back to his home, Nova Scotia, where there are huge shad. I’m sure if he was still on the West Coast he would be able to provide some input on the status of our shad runs. BTW, today is his birthday!

[WLREDBAND]

An excerpt from a recent document discussing shad populations in CA.
"While there's still a sport fishery for shad in the Sacramento River system, data on the overall spawning population is limited, possibly due to a lack of targeted management and monitoring. This is in contrast to the Columbia River, where shad populations have been closely monitored through fish ladder counts at Bonneville Dam, allowing for more precise abundance estimates. However, data from pelagic fish monitoring programs in the San Francisco Estuary show a decline in American shad, alongside other species, since 1980."

[WLREDBAND]

A great article discussing shad runs and monitoring in CA.
https://www.calwatercenter.org/delta...nadromous-fish

[fatbillybob]

Thanks gents!