Quote Originally Posted by NIMROD View Post
Maybe you can learn what they do to raise them but bet keeping water temps up in hatchery ponds might be a problem each winter ? Ever do a study on water temps in area lakes to see if the Threadfins could even survive most normal winters ? Could you not collect Shad from Lakes like Dardanelle when they bunch up in winter ? Purchase and transportation from Alabama might be more expensive and risks of importing disease or invasive species might be greater?
Our fish pathologist requires that the shad come from a certified disease free facility. You have a greater chance of introducing some thing that you don't want if you were moving fish from one lake to another. This is my theory why yellow bass have been spread to most lakes. Guys collecting shad with cast nets bring their bait to another lake and then discard the none shad into the new lake. Rotenone samples were how we used to monitor shad. Now all we have are small shad nets and not everyone is using them yet.