Will the Ice help??

Do you guys think that with this extreme cold we had this year and all the ice on the lakes that we will experience a major shad kill?? I think we might knock the numbers back some this year and therefore help our fishing. Just a theory and maybe nothing to it but most very cold winters with ice on the lakes are usually followed by a good or at least decent fishing season.

I personally thought the fishing was off last year at most places. Not all as Kentucky Lake, Green and a few others had banner years, but overall a bit off. I know Cumberland was down especially the striper bite.

Mark,
I don't know...but last year at Lake Ellerslie we had alot of Shad dying in the Spring? Maybe runoff from the city? I don't know but I do know we have a TON of Shad in there!

[QUOTE=DJD;397023]Mark,
I don't know...but last year at Lake Ellerslie we had alot of Shad dying in the Spring? Maybe runoff from the city? I don't know but I do know we have a TON of Shad in there![/QUOTE]

Don, did they put shad in that lake?? If so why??? Shad are not a good thing in a small body of water.

Man I don't know but in the Summer you can see zillions of little shad in the aeor...areato...er..well things with air coming out the holes!:)
They have two lines running up the lake.

i look for it to be a good yr of fishing:D in 07 that was a cold winter it killed alot of shad I had a great yr that yr boated my biggest bass 8lbs biggest blue that yr wt 70lbs caught tons that yr

Listening to all of the old timer fisherman most of them say their best years are after a big freeze....i don't think a shad kill would hurt cumberland at all...several times last year i was down there and they were stacked in the creeks by the millions....hopefully itll help us all this year

[QUOTE=mhall;396988]Do you guys think that with this extreme cold we had this year and all the ice on the lakes that we will experience a major shad kill?? I think we might knock the numbers back some this year and therefore help our fishing. Just a theory and maybe nothing to it but most very cold winters with ice on the lakes are usually followed by a good or at least decent fishing season.

I personally thought the fishing was off last year at most places. Not all as Kentucky Lake, Green and a few others had banner years, but overall a bit off. I know Cumberland was down especially the striper bite.[/QUOTE]

Yes there should be a shad kill due to cold winter, but the cold's duration sure didn't last, so that will relate to the true magnitude of the kill off. Bass and catfish will eat up the dying shad if they aren't already. I can't remember if threadfin or gizzard are the most susceptible to the extreme cold, but it puts a real damper on one of them.

What about the ice storm of 09? It froze Taylorsville an Salt River for a good amount of time. The lake was rock solid. Last year I remember seeing more shad flipping than I had ever seen. Late in the day, Salt River would look like the Super Bowl crowd, all the lights flashing, it would look like that from shad flipping.

[QUOTE=mhall;397029]Don, did they put shad in that lake?? If so why??? Shad are not a good thing in a small body of water.[/QUOTE]

Gizzards occur naturally in many creeks around KY. When they get dammed up, the Gizzards do real well. In the case of Lake E, that creek has them (we see them down where you and I have fished it). One of the reasons that the state looked into stocking Hybrids in smaller lakes around the state.

As far as shad kill on Cumberland, I would think so. Threadfin do not do well in cold water. I seem to remember seeing something on water temps in the 30s will kill them.

Andrew

When the water gets down in the 30's the threadfin start killing off....Throwing the float n fly is a dead on imitation of the dying threadfin....if youre out on cumberland much during the cold months you will see a lot of threadfin floating and a lot more turned up on their side in the process of dying....the ice just speads up the process and even though the cold didnt last long the ice melting is keeping the water temps down

[QUOTE=Catfish Bob;397134]What about the ice storm of 09? It froze Taylorsville an Salt River for a good amount of time. The lake was rock solid. Last year I remember seeing more shad flipping than I had ever seen. Late in the day, Salt River would look like the Super Bowl crowd, all the lights flashing, it would look like that from shad flipping.[/QUOTE]

Does T-ville have Threadfins in it? Thought they were Gizzard Shad. The threadfin is more prone to cold water die offs.

On a side note, Threadfin are often stocked in lakes to provide forage for other species. Unlike the Gizzard Shad they do not grow so big that few fish can eat them. Even an adult sized Threadfin can be eaten by an average sized bass. Gizzards get big (like 16 inches or so). There are only a few fish in most lakes that can eat a bait that size so they can become a pest if they are allowed to over populate. Not likely to happen with Threadfin as they'll provide meals for preditor fish and have die offs some years.

Andrew