Fishery future

[Littlesaltwash]

It seems that with the tremendous amount of shad this year that the surviving shad should have several years of repopulating and being an abundant forage base. At about what size do they not become a common prey or outgrow most predators? I would think that the over abundance of shad would allow a higher survivability rate for LM, Sm, Crappie, etc. What are the projections for Lake Powell’s fishery?

 

[wayne gustaveson]

It seems that with the tremendous amount of shad this year that the surviving shad should have several years of repopulating and being an abundant forage base. At about what size do they not become a common prey or outgrow most predators? I would think that the over abundance of shad would allow a higher survivability rate for LM, Sm, Crappie, etc. What are the projections for Lake Powell’s fishery?

Threadfin Shad are a small fish that never outgrow the forage range of all predators in the lake. Bass and stripers are always happy to see shad - even the 6 inch old adults. Gizzard shad are huge forage fish that grow to 6 inches in one year then continue to grow to over 3 pounds in the next few years. The good thing about big adult gizzard shad is they reproduce every year which provides those young fish as forage for all predators. The problem with threadfin is they only produce a big batch of young-of-year fish about every third year. I am happy for all fish sport fish species because of big shad numbers in 2019.