Is There A Shad Kill? Opening day at Dam Feb 1st

Shad from 2010

The phone as well as my in box have been busy lately with folks from around the country wanting to know wether or not any shad have been coming through?  Maybe!  What kind of answer is that Jim?  I’ll answer that this way.   Reports from lake fisherman are that dead shad have been seen on Norfork lake and that the lake temps are below 42 f.  Shad usually come through that dam before they come through Bull Shoals Dam.  I’ve been getting some spotty reports about shad on Taneycomo but nothing definitive.  The lake temps on Bull Shoals have dropped down to right at 42 from the last report I posted on lake temps a couple of weeks ago when the main lake temp was at 47f.  Some of my fellow guides as well as some locals swear shad have to be coming through because of the way the gulls are diving into the water.  I don’t like to call a shad kill unless I can actually get a picture of one or actually see shad coming through.  Sometimes the shad don’t float up to the surface but stay in the water column if their swim bladders are burst when they come through.  However with that much generation and with some of the heavy flows some shad are probably coming through the dam.  But this can happen at any time of the year.  Does this make for what we call a “Shad Kill”?  I wouldn’t call it one.   The generation schedule for this weekend is for no generation today Saturday and for no generation tomorrow Sunday and generation ceased yesterday Friday at 10:00 am.  This guide will be on the water Sun-Mon & Wednesday.  Tuesday is Feb 1st and opening day for the Catch and Release area at the dam.  The weather does not look good for for next week starting Monday night with a front coming through and dropping temps with a chance of freezing rain and sleet at 70%.  Stay tuned.

Click on the Articles page.  There is a more detailed article about the shad kill there.

Also check out this article from Mid-Current News

http://www.midcurrent.com/news/2009/01/arkansass-shad-kill-pseudohatc.html

Sign up for my Shad Kill Alert by sending an e-mail to shadkillalert@flyfisharkansas.com  with Shad Kill in the subject line.

Good Fishing.

Jimmy T.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.