Shad Situation at Cumberland

[gizzard shad]

Has anybody tried catching shad lately. I was wondering if the alewives had been catchable. I also heard that the alewive population is down due to the current lake conditon. Since the lake elevation is way down and there is not as much strucutre along the banks the alewives do not have the ideal spawning habitat. I am not sure if this is true, but I know it has been harder to catch quality alewives over the past couple of years.

[mhall]

Word on the street is Alwives are very hard to get. Threadfins can be caught by the Gazillions. Even some large Gizzards being caught under lights and in the backs of creeks. It seems the bass and stripers have switched gears down there this year feeding more on the smaller bait, thus the threadfin have been the bait of choice.

[JoeB]

I wasn't having any problems catching alwives until the lake turned muddy this past week. Until then, it was pretty easy. They disappeared on me in late summer, as they usually do, but since October they have been good.

[sweett4u]

I have been catch shad up the heads of creeks

[RC5]

Alewives spawn in open water so I dont think the structure thing is right but the adults cant stand anything much warmer than 75 degrees. idk what the lake being lower has done to the thermocline or the lakes temps but I guess that could be an issue.

[green river time]

This is how the alewives spawn

Landlocked alewives move from deep water to shallow beaches in lakes or move up streams to ponds to spawn in spring.
Females usually move to the spawning areas just before the males. Spawning takes place at night in groups of two or three over a sandy or gravelly bottom. Freshwater females deposit 10,000-12,000 eggs, whereas their sea-run counterparts produce 60,000-100,000 eggs. Eggs are broadcast randomly, are demersal (that is, they sink), and are not particularly adhesive. Adults leave the spawning area after spawning; no care is given eggs or young by the adult fish. In less than a week, the young alewives hatch to begin feeding on minute, free-floating plants and animals. By fall, the young alewives make their way back to the sea or, in the case of landlocked populations, to the deep waters of lakes. Landlocked alewives reach an average length of about 6 inches when adults, by contrast with marine alewives that reach much larger sizes.

Be Safe and Have Fun GREEN RIVER TIME

[mhall]

This is how the alewives spawn

Landlocked alewives move from deep water to shallow beaches in lakes or move up streams to ponds to spawn in spring.
Females usually move to the spawning areas just before the males. Spawning takes place at night in groups of two or three over a sandy or gravelly bottom. Freshwater females deposit 10,000-12,000 eggs, whereas their sea-run counterparts produce 60,000-100,000 eggs. Eggs are broadcast randomly, are demersal (that is, they sink), and are not particularly adhesive. Adults leave the spawning area after spawning; no care is given eggs or young by the adult fish. In less than a week, the young alewives hatch to begin feeding on minute, free-floating plants and animals. By fall, the young alewives make their way back to the sea or, in the case of landlocked populations, to the deep waters of lakes. Landlocked alewives reach an average length of about 6 inches when adults, by contrast with marine alewives that reach much larger sizes.

Be Safe and Have Fun GREEN RIVER TIME

We have a winner. I like it in the spring when you can hear them good at night then that.......................................BOOM... .......... From an ole lineside making dinner out of one of them, OH Yea.

Alewives spawn right against the bank litterally, in fact some of them are almost ON the bank.

[RC5]

I guess over those sandy and gravl bottoms dosnt constitute as open water??? They are a saltwater fish so they spawn a little different in Cumberland than in saltwater where all these studies are done talking about how they run up in the creeks and stuff.

[apb]

RC5, the alewifes that I've seen spawing on Cumberland have been right on the bluff walls as noted above. May be some spawn in other areas too?

Andrew