you need to be careful when tranplanting shad. its easy to confuse gizzard shad with threadfin shad. also very easy to introduce other unwanted fish like blueback herring. that is a real problem here. educate yourself on threadfins and be able to ID them. you may also consider buying them from a hatchery, that way you dont have to worry about unwanted fish.
I dont know if you are stocking adult bass this year or bass fry. If you stock bass fry they may not be able to fully utilize the shad until they get larger (next year). Shad are open water filter feeders and dont feel the urge to hang out around structure. Bass fry will hang around the edges of the pond and near structure, well out of range of the shad. I think bluegill fry may be a better choice for young, growing bass (less than 10 inches). when I find schools of shad during shocking surveys there are never any small bass, usually bass 1-3 pounds like to give shad trouble. Dont know if thats absolute fact, just what I have observed.
you made no mention of bluegill. I would not consider stocking a pond that I wanted good bass growth without some bluegill. Remember, bluegill spawn multiple times during the year (just like shad) and dont die in the winter.
I would expect the threadfins to die during the winter months up there. so be prepared, if you want them you will probably have to stock them every year. If you decide to stock them you will find it is much easier to establish a spawning population in a fertilized pond. dont know if you are going to fertilize if even if you can. but if your pond is green from a plankton bloom threadfins will take off. It will probably be difficult to establish a good spawning population once bass are larger. I get good results stocking them into ponds with adult bass at a rate of about 5,000 per 10 acres of water. Even when stocking that many fish it makes a huge difference if the water is fertilized. green water = happy shad
hope this helps
