SHAD??

[i8asquirrel]

are they getting any Shad in the oregon city area yet?

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[ruger45blackhawk]

sea lions are most likely eaten them too!!!

 

[WAYNO]

Although the shad start showing mid-May, it is really a bit early, as the good numbers are in June. I always planned on the best fishing during Rose Festival week.

I've also noticed, when the salmon are late, the shad are late too. The salmon bite has been so poor this year, don't know if the salmon are late, or the numbers are low, or if the moon has just caused them not to bite.

WAYNO.

 

[Iceman04503]

I like using this site: 7 Day and YTD Adult Counts

 

[AlphaCoyote]

I know it's a tad off topic, but if you ever get a chance to read John McPhee's book about the cultural and historical importance of shad, "The Founding Fish," it's a great read. He discusses the enormous shad runs in the Hudson River and how worker's bars along the river would put out shad roe for free on the bar, the same way bars sometimes today put out peanuts -- to get people to drink beer. Not too much of a spoiler here: The decline in populations was precipitous, but have been slowly recovering with conservation efforts. Hudson river natives depended on shad runs the way PNW natives depended on salmon runs. Both anadromous fish.

 

[Silver Hand]

I know it's a tad off topic, but if you ever get a chance to read John McPhee's book about the cultural and historical importance of shad, "The Founding Fish," it's a great read. He discusses the enormous shad runs in the Hudson River and how worker's bars along the river would put out shad roe for free on the bar, the same way bars sometimes today put out peanuts -- to get people to drink beer. Not too much of a spoiler here: The decline in populations was precipitous, but have been slowly recovering with conservation efforts. Hudson river natives depended on shad runs the way PNW natives depended on salmon runs. Both anadromous fish.

I grew up on the Hudson River and fished it heavily in my youth, about the time a ferry ride to New Jersey was one silver dime. I watched the thriving river slowly die in the first quarter of my life time. I recall shad nets when they were legal and the fish when still prevalent. Slowly the nets and the fish disappeared. Something happened to that river the year [1963] when they opened the gates to the Indian Point #1 Nuclear power plant. The river was polluted from industry and that was always promoted to be a serious problem and it is. The year they started the Indian Point #1 Nuclear power plant I saw everything that lived in that river dead against the shore line for mile after mile, I actually eye witnessed the carnage for over fifteen miles. Seven foot sturgeon and smaller striped bass in the three and four foot range, all the younger of the species and numbers of other various species laying to waist along the shore line. They said the water got a bit to warm wile using the cooling system for the first time. I will bet it was just a bit to warm that week or so.
The river was never the same after that.

My father was a carpenter foremen on the crew and his closest friend, a man that fell to his death building the great machine Hank will remain in my memory for ever.
- Before me my family spoke of the salmon runs I never witnessed and a fish that returned every seven years to spawn - the lafayettes!
Silver Hand

 

[AlphaCoyote]

Hell of a story. Thanks. Sorry about that foreman.

 

[Silver Hand]

From what I was told due to budget problems, they never built the proposed and planned emergency cooling tower, that during an emergency was to feed cold water through the plant from the local reservoir. Instead all water was drawn from the Hudson River using pumps . In the end the dome in Plant #1 that was considered totally indestructible warped on the inside due to a bit of overheating! Afterward the #1 Plant was shut down permanently.

The site chosen to build the three nuclear plants is now known to be unstable and is an actual geological fault line.
I had a few reasons for leaving NY this #1 plant was a serious consideration of mine.

<broken link removed>

Silver Hand

 

[Gaucho Gringo]

I don't know how many of you are aware that shad are not native to the west coast. They are an introduced species, native to the east coast. They and striped bass were introduced to the west coast in the 1870-80's time frame. They are a member of the herring family. I remember catching shad with small silver colored spoons and catching herring with a jig rig with 3 to 8 small silver colored hooks, often getting 2 or more herring at one time. Catching both shad and herring are real fun on light tackle. Of course that is JMPO.

 

[WAYNO]

I've worked, as well as fished, on the Willamette for many years.

In the late spring, there's a special smell to the river. When this smell is most pungent, is also when the shad fishing is red hot. I noticed this smell today for the first time this year. Betcha if ya hit the river now, you'd have some red-hot shad fishing.

WAYNO.

 

[Silver Hand]

I talked to an old friend back in NYC a few days back he said once again the Hudson is full of shad.
I for one am happy to see the rivers coming back to life.

Oh an my son went out shad fishing near Portland about a week back and put 142 fish in the boat. I have had some good days but never anything like that.
Silver Hand

 

[jbett98]

Old Shad cooking recipe.

Take a clean cedar shake board, place a fresh caught Shad on it and drive a nail through the gills to hold Shad in place.
Prop the cedar board near a hot bed of coals, so the Shad is at a 45 degree angle.
When you can easily pull the tail off the Shad,
Throw the Shad away, and eat the cedar plank.

 

[Stomper]

Old Shad cooking recipe.

Take a clean cedar shake board, place a fresh caught Shad on it and drive a nail through the gills to hold Shad in place.
Prop the cedar board near a hot bed of coals, so the Shad is at a 45 degree angle.
When you can easily pull the tail off the Shad,
Throw the Shad away, and eat the cedar plank.

LMAO!

 

[WAYNO]

On cooking... All we ever did with them was can them, and make a head cheese with them after pressure cooking the sheeeet o\ut of them so you could eat the bones and all. My Russian grandmother also made stew our them, head and all

Does anybody here eat them?

Been a lot of years since I've eaten them. Smoked and canned, spread on a cracker, and they were good. We'd catch a mess of them, take them to the smoker, and for a fee we'd trade them for cans of smoked shad without even having to wait.

WAYNO.

 

[soulrider]

I worked with a guy who would give me $1 a shad. He used them for crab bait. I have never tried eating them.

 

[Emerald]

For cooking and eating, think bass, and you're close. Delicate flavor, lots of bones. Try roasting them in foil with salt and pepper, some olive oil, and squirts of lemon. Our founding fathers ate them regularly in the Hudson River Valley. They are America's Founding Fish. I can see using them for crab bait, but just the heads and tails. The rest is too good for crabs. Don't knock it if you haven't eaten a 3 lb. shad.

 

[HappyRoman]

Used this years fresh shad as bait for Halibut fishing this weekend. Yahoo, 51" Halibutsky..

 

[jbett98]

One year I decided to freeze a couple of limits of shad (25) for crab bait. I poked a wire through the gills and put five shad per plastic garbage bag.
Packed all of it a freezer a friend gave me that I had stored out in my shop.
Two weeks later I started to smell something off out there, but couldn't quite make out where it was coming from.
A day or two later the smell was really bad and I thought a rat had eaten some of the poison I had placed around the shop.
Without thinking about it, I went over to the freezer and yanked open the door.
Not a good idea.
The freezer had died and the shad had swelled up inside the bags.
The wire had poked holes through the plastic and as hard as I could try and I couldn't close the door because the bags had slipped down and were blocking me from getting it shut and the last thing I wanted was all of this mess spilling out on my new shop floor.
I yelled for my wife to help me but when she got near the freezer she started to gag and throw up from the God awful smell (she was four months pregnant).
As she backed away, she told me to get a hold of the friend who gave me the piece of crap freezer and have him help.
She did manage to throw me a piece of rope that I tied around it and dragged it outside.
To this day, I can't stand the smell of shad.