Shad Kill Off!!!

Ok, I was sitting around thinking about the shad kill off we had this winter on many area lakes. The question I have is since the crappie are feasting on the shad this winter and although there are still live shad to be had will this help the spring bite or hinder the bite? Meaning less bait fish for all fish to have and therefore they will be more aggressive on artificial baits because of this. I know the affects of to many shad dying off might take its toll in the next year or two may leave us with less bait fish till we have a good year on the spawn for them. What does everyone thing.

They might be more aggressive if they live that long. No food or significantly reduced shad population could make it tough for survival.

Maybe with less Shad the Water Turkey Population will die off as well. Lol. Just a thought. I expect to see a lot more gamefish with holes on their bodies from being speared by the turkey's. Another thought....Ranger

Ranger - That is what air rifles are used for.........turkey hunting:biggrin

I.was out at draper lake a.couple weekends ago and.there was a.pretty good shad kill there there was 100s froze in the ice

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Originally Posted by cricket george

Ranger - That is what air rifles are used for.........turkey hunting:biggrin

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Gosh, I was thinking 12 gauge !

There will be a very short period of time that the fish can eat the dead shad. just in a few days they'll decompose on the bottom, which will benefit
the catfish. I doubt a crappie or bass would eat a decomposed fish. It also depends if the lake is filled by creeks vs rivers. I believe a river filled lake will recover allot quicker vs a creek filled lake. With less shad the fish would definitely bite better and more agressively on artificial bait. Just my opinion.

I'm with Ranger. Cormorants (aka water turkeys) are a scourge. Experts say they eat from 1 to 5 pounds of fish per day, and there have been thousands on many of the state's lakes. If they only eat 1 pound per day, just 1,000 of them are eating a half ton per day. I have posted before that the FWP said there were over 9,000 of them on Lake Hefner about three years after PETA got them on the endangered species list. They were there for seven weeks. That's between 220.5 tons and over 1,100 tons. Hefner has never been the same. Ft. Cobb, ditto. And PETA got a maximum fine of $15,000 per bird killed put in place. Googling the fine shows that most judges impose lesser fines, but the wardens and rangers around the state will ticket you for killing one.
As to wounded fish, Thomas over at Ft. Cobb says the shad balls are all below 30 feet, trying to avoid the cormorants. They are also seeing blues up to 45 pounds with cormorant stab wounds.

Wow! Those are some eye opening stats. Cormorants were part of a 3 country US / Canada / Mexico migratory treaty that took 20 years to complete, and might take 20 more if ever to reverse. Thanks for that post.....very informative.

Thanks for the post. While I am all for saving the environment. I think these birds may actually be harming the environment in places. Then again we all know what Vegetarian mean right? It's an old Cherokee word for Terrible Hunter. :biggrin


Bobo

Hat 55 - Air rifles are allot quieter than a 12 gauge

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Originally Posted by cricket george

Hat 55 - Air rifles are allot quieter than a 12 gauge

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Nobody to disturb in Honobia, besides 12 gauge is smallest we have here!

I don't think there will be much difference. No one has mentioned the bumper crop of shad that spawned last season. Oologah is stll chocked full of shad balls. It's probably no more than too many shad to begin with.