Shad questions

Pete · 07-04-2002, 08:17 AM

The shad run is trailing off, but more than 3 million silver bullets passed Bonneville. How many total returned to the Columbia/Willamette system? 5 million? 15 million pounds of fish? Where do they all go? I've never seen rafts of dead shad floating down the river or piled up on the banks. Certainly sturgeon don't eat all of them, do they? Do they sink to the bottom and decompose after they spawn? Where do they spawn? I know they like shallow, gravelled gentle sloping areas, but where? Near the Dalles? Anywhere along the banks?

OK, its a rhetorical question...

STGRule · 07-04-2002, 12:08 PM

Don't know the answers but I can make some educated guesses.
They require some velocity to spawn (broadcast spawners) so up near the dams would be a good guess. But probably not right at the dam. They probably spawn at night (as do most broadcast spawners) to avoid predation on the eggs until they have a chance to get down in the gravel. I believe the sturgeon really do clean up after the shad. I don't believe they all die (or at least not all at once) as I have seen adult shad well after seeing juveniles starting to run downstream. I actually have a theory that McNary dam is helping the shad run. They have collectors to get the juvenile salmonids to barge downstream past the dams. They can't weed out the juvenile shad from the juvenile salmonids so they end up giving the shad a nice safe ride down the river. I have seen thousands of shad compared to tens to hundreds of salmonids come through the sorter and into the barge. ODFW would like to be able to do some sort of shad research as there is a question about whether juvenile shad compete with juvenile salmonids for food and such, but as with all good ideas it requires money that nobody has.

4Salt · 07-04-2002, 12:20 PM

I've heard rumors that the shad will spawn in the fish ladders of the dams? STG's point about shad being broadcast spawners, and needing substantial current flow would seem to support this. The article states that adult shad at least on the east coast, return to the ocean, and don't necessarily die after spawning. Maybe there isn't a massive die-off after spawning occurs? With the Columbia river being so large, and with so much flow, I'm not surprised that we don't see shad carcasses everywhere in late summer. Definitely an interesting subject when, as you pointed out, there are so many shad that return, and we seem to know so little about their lifecycle here on the west coast.

Jim · 07-04-2002, 12:47 PM

Pete,
Interesting question which for me brings up another question. Back in (the good 'ol) days when oversized fishing wasn't popular the few of us that did it would just catch dead floating shad and use them for bait. Now I hardly ever see a floater...what change at Bonne to effect that?

Jim

4Salt · 07-04-2002, 11:06 PM

Pete,

Click here for some of the answers to your query.

STGRule · 07-04-2002, 11:23 PM

[ 07-04-2002, 12:23 PM: Message edited by: STGRule ]

Pete · 07-04-2002, 11:33 PM

4 salt, I saw that site ... but I still don't know the answers to my questions. 1) Where do all the dead shad go? 2) Where in the river, not what type of bottom, do shad spawn. I'm thinking about locations ... it must be a frenzy to watch, but I wouldn't know where to find it.

chummer · 07-05-2002, 09:24 AM

I know that above mcnary dam, where i lived for 14 years, that we would come across huge balls of shad. An old guy once said they were all spawning like a big **** .