Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Gizzard shad

To All The Readers - I will supply some background information on gizzard shad.

Our mentor Bob Lusk and a few others have mentioned that gizzard shad can be helpful BUT not necessary in growing trophy bass above the 6 lb mark. Also see his book "Raising Trophy Bass". I think a pond needs a "goodly" number of bass larger than 5 lbs AND that good numbers of larger panfish are LOW on the list of pond goals before gizzard shad are considered or stocked. I "think" most professionals would agree that threadfin shad since they are usually less than 6" long are a lot more desirable than gizzard shad as supplimental forage fish for stocking into any recreational fish pond. As noted numerous times previously on this forum their main disadvantage is threadfin shad die when water temps drop below 41F. My additional comments are listed below.

1. Gizzard shad live longer (4yrs) than threadfin shad (2 yrs). Gizzard shad are very very prolific and produce 22,000 to 540,000 eggs depending on size of female. Eggs are adhesive, laid & fertilized in open water, and settle on vegetation or bottom materials. Eggs hatch quickly (3-7days). Fry grow very rapidly to 10" long and adults range from 11" to 23" long; quite large for a forage fish. If gizzards live around 4 yrs old and grow to 20+" that indeed is fast growth.

2. Gizzard shad are filter feeders, swim a lot in open water and strain & eat very small organisms (plant & animal plankton) collected from the water. Gizzards will also eat plant and animal materials from the bottom sediments and probably roil or disturb the sediments in this feeding activity. When gizzard shad numbers are abundant at 500-600 lbs/acre the fish can actually filter the ENTIRE volume of a pond/lake in 50-60 hours.

3. I will quote a professor (Jay Huner - Farm Pond Harvest Mag. fall 2004) from Louisiana SW Univ. "It would take an odd fellow indeed to recommend the stocking of gizzard shad in ANY recreational fish pond". "They are very proflic fishes". "They grow very rapidly". "Because they are low on the food chain, they develop relatively high biomasses and out compete desirable fry and fingerlings such as bluegill and largemouth bass fry fingerlings for food".

4. Gizzard shad are especially adept at leaping over low spillways. Shad threadfin and gizzard are very sensitive to handling. They are very sensitive to low oxygen levels at 2ppm and lower. These are first fish to die when oxygen levels start decreasing. Unhappy shad are good barometers of poor water quality.

5. Since gizzard shad can easily grow to sizes beyond the forage size of the largest bass high numbers of these oversized, inedible fish will cause the panfish and numbers of fingerlings to "suffer" in pond or small lake due to their consuming a majority or most of the pond's important plankton organisms. The overall fish poundage in the lake can be composed of mostly big gizzard shad. This is okay if all you are interested in is big bass or big predators and not panfish. Keep in mind that once stocked it is extremly difficult to eliminate the gizzard shad and you are stuck with them until the pond/lake is completely renovated. Panfish populations would have always been better in this pond if they did not have to compete with the filter feeding gizzards. Controling gizzard shad numbers can be quite difficult.

6. Numbers of large predators that are capable of eating 12"-15" gizzard shad should always be high to keep the larger gizzard shad from becoming too abundant. Again, if this is your goal for the pond or lake, then maybe gizzard shad can work in special situations. If gizzard shad are stocked you should have the ability to closely monitor their populations in terms of numbers and presence of relative sizes. I think this means you are willing to get a professsional fisheries person involved who can do shocking and sampling surveys. But in most ponds, at least some like or enjoy catching and harvesting the large panfishes. Gizzard shad tend to suppress the dynamics of quality panfisheries.

7. Lots of ponds and lakes that are properly managed contain high quality bass and panfish without gizzard shad as a forage fish.

POSTSCRIPT; Meadowlark, The main problem that I see with stocking gizzard shad with HSB is that the gizzards will very quickly (in a few months) grow way too big body depth wise for the largest HSB to eat it. Keep in mind that HSB have quite a small mouth compared to a LMB of the same length. A real good forage item to stock with HSB I think is the golden shiner. It is an open-water shiner that gets 10" long (3-5yrs) and is relatively prolific with proper spawning areas and some cover to provide refugia for the small shiners till they get 4"-5" long. They too will compete with the panfish populaiton but not as dramatically as the gizzard shad.