About three years ago, I introduced Gizzard Shad (GS) to my largest predator pond in an effort to determine their utility. The following summer began a period of drought in my area that only ended this past winter. During that time period, I usually would notice only one small single school with few fish of what I assumed were GS.
This year has seen an explosion of 5 distinct schools of large numbers of small fish...presumably GS. Probably not coincidentally, water has been flowing over my spillways constantly since early January this year providing a great flushing/renewing action to the pond.
I can't say for certain these are GS and not threadfins because they are very small at this time. Either way, I'm happy, delighted to see them. Having caught 5 LMB from 6 to 10 pounds this season, I'm very comfortable with these being GS...or threadfins for that matter, but the GS would provide some better sized forage for 25 inch LMB.
I fondly recall a very stimulating discussion of GS with Bill Cody back in Nov. of '04, but had assumed my attempts at establishing them had essentially failed until now. My thanks again to Bill for that discussion which remains one of my most fun/enjoyable discussions on this forum.
See that discussion at
http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000214 To view pictures of the baby GS...or possibly threadfins...see this link:
http://www.meadowlarkponds.com/gamsTSGS.htm Ponds...wonderous and wonderful and full of surprises!
