2024 Shad stuff
- Thread starter Evan B
- Start date
What fly did it hit?
Purple blow torch like fly with squirrel fur body
A friend of a friend also caught a shad on the Cedar yesterday. So that's 2 shad caught for sure, just on fly gear.
Here's a crappy pic from a friend of a friend. Please, no conspiracy theories here. Both good dudes, but just a rushed screenshot that I further cropped for privacy. I mean, I can't reveal my local shad menace.
This article from March from WDFW crews- Shad in Lake Washington
"Bosworth reports crews recently made a record single-day haul of five totes’ worth of shad – about 300 fish – and they’re catching a “good number” of them each day they gillnet.
“Last year we were only able to fill three totes on our biggest day,” he said.
Bosworth said shad appear to be “abundant” in Lake Washington so far this year, and they may be a shade bigger than those caught at this time in 2023.
It also states that 2 shad they cut open each had a single salmon fry in them. It's possible they were just random innocent victims while the shade were sucking in their vege zooplankton, but who knows. The article also points out there are rock bass eating salmon fry like crazy at the mouth of the Cedar. They didn't know there were rock bass in LW. And a pike.
Anyway, I think I'm actually going to target shad on the Cedar. Looks like they're here to stay.
Here's a crappy pic from a friend of a friend. Please, no conspiracy theories here. Both good dudes, but just a rushed screenshot that I further cropped for privacy. I mean, I can't reveal my local shad menace.
This article from March from WDFW crews- Shad in Lake Washington
"Bosworth reports crews recently made a record single-day haul of five totes’ worth of shad – about 300 fish – and they’re catching a “good number” of them each day they gillnet.
“Last year we were only able to fill three totes on our biggest day,” he said.
Bosworth said shad appear to be “abundant” in Lake Washington so far this year, and they may be a shade bigger than those caught at this time in 2023.
It also states that 2 shad they cut open each had a single salmon fry in them. It's possible they were just random innocent victims while the shade were sucking in their vege zooplankton, but who knows. The article also points out there are rock bass eating salmon fry like crazy at the mouth of the Cedar. They didn't know there were rock bass in LW. And a pike.
Anyway, I think I'm actually going to target shad on the Cedar. Looks like they're here to stay.
I find this surprising, that they didn’t know this. Rock bass have been in Lake Sammamish for a long time and I expect they’ve been in LW for pretty much just as long.
The one in my crappy screenshot was about 12" or so my friend guessed. He didn't ask his buddy so it could've been longer.
Yard Sale
Life of the Party
I like to see a steady 80K per day at Bonny before hitting the JD. Looks like we had a 100K day and a few 50K days so there should be some around with better numbers to come. Seems like a slow start this year but the cool weather means they haven't had to crank the big river yet. I'll probably go check it out Friday afternoon if you are around.
Big river is pretty cranked in my neighborhood
yeah, this, rock bass everywhere in LW, Green Lake, Sammamish, Haller etc etc
We need the bobo hoist, high above head, disney zebco rods somewhere in view....
hah, I'll see what I can do. Wasn't really planning on any more 2024 shadding, but maybe I will.
My buddy's friend of a friend's pic in this article. Shad in the Cedar
"We have received several reports this week of anglers catching non-native American shad in the Cedar River near Renton,” said WDFW spokesman Chase Gunnell"
I'm not worried about shad eating salmon fry. Bass and trout eat WAY more. And there isn't any evidence of shad pushing trout or salmon off redds. I think shad will fertilize the river in a good way. I think they feed a lot of sea lions that might otherwise eat steelhead & salmon.
The thing I worry about is the mob. All the bucket toters will descend on the Cedar with multiple barbed jigs. Sure, they might end up catching some trout, but even worse, just the mere mob scene will take away from the trout experience.
"We have received several reports this week of anglers catching non-native American shad in the Cedar River near Renton,” said WDFW spokesman Chase Gunnell"
I'm not worried about shad eating salmon fry. Bass and trout eat WAY more. And there isn't any evidence of shad pushing trout or salmon off redds. I think shad will fertilize the river in a good way. I think they feed a lot of sea lions that might otherwise eat steelhead & salmon.
The thing I worry about is the mob. All the bucket toters will descend on the Cedar with multiple barbed jigs. Sure, they might end up catching some trout, but even worse, just the mere mob scene will take away from the trout experience.
HauntedByWaters
Life of the Party
I’d be worried that the Cedar gets shut down by some bio for a stupid fucking reason because there are non-native shad in there. Nothing would surprise me.
My concern is that there are a few large groups of people very much in to the max harvest, catch and kill everything program who will be all over this. It's going to cause a lot of problems on that river I think, much like @skyriver was saying. Many of these groups won't care if it's a trout, salmon, or shad. It's going in the bucket.
My concern about potential impacts from shad in Lake Washington would be at the lower trophic levels.
From much of a shad life they feed on zooplankton and smaller aquatic insects. With all the exotic species as well as the longfin smelt and sticklebacks in Lake Washington the fish community is already top heavy with species feeding at that level. Conversely I don't know if much can be done about shad being in the lake. Doubt that netting will do much good and for sure anglers will not be able to remove enough to make a detectable difference in their abundance in the lake.
Curt
From much of a shad life they feed on zooplankton and smaller aquatic insects. With all the exotic species as well as the longfin smelt and sticklebacks in Lake Washington the fish community is already top heavy with species feeding at that level. Conversely I don't know if much can be done about shad being in the lake. Doubt that netting will do much good and for sure anglers will not be able to remove enough to make a detectable difference in their abundance in the lake.
Curt