Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait A cold water equivalent to threadfin shad???

Is there any forage fish that fills the same niche as the threadfin shad?

open water fish

filter feeder

highly reproductive

Its probably too much to ask for LOL.

Gizzard shad can survive colder weather although they do get stressed and there is some mortality. Gizzard shad are the main forage in a local trout lake.

That's said, they are a poor candidate for other reasons as they can take over a fishery and grow too large for effective forage to some extent.

Smelt are also a coldwater forage fish but probably not viable in ponds.

The Alosa species in particular would be the biggest example of cold water species somewhat equivalent to threadfin shad. However, they are still substantial differences.

The two major species are the alewife and the blueback herring. Both require small streams to ascend in order to successfully spawn. Many lakes in the north have alewife as their primary forage for trouts and salmon. Blueback herring do not do quite so well in extremely cold waters but are more commonly found in landlocked impoundments in the southeast where they are a primary forage of landlocked striped bass.

There would be few private bodies of water that could support either species though.

See these prior threads.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post13998


http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post19341

Here is some info on the Alewive Alewive in the Great Lakes

We experience massive die offs quite frequently. It can get really stinky when that happens. If you catch some in a cast net, they pretty much all die when you pull them out of the water.