Cedar Creek Draw Down

[apb]

All I have to say is if you take out the shad you will have a lake like Beaver lake in Anderson Co. that you can catch tons of 14.75" fish but very few keepers.

Actually, if you leave too many shad in, you will impact the bass and other fish populations. Gizzards feed on the same stuff and the fry of other species, but do so more efficiently. Also, they grow quickly and soon become too large to be eaten by most fish in the lake. They also spend a good deal of the year over open water where they have few preditors. If you are not careful, you'll end up with a lake that is full of large Gizzards with nothing to feed on them. That is one reason that Hybrid Stripers have been introduced in some smaller lakes in KY (Guist Creek for example). They help to control the shad populations and keep the size down so that other species can also eat the shad.

Andrew

[MrSplitshot]

Actually, if you leave too many shad in, you will impact the bass and other fish populations. Gizzards feed on the same stuff and the fry of other species, but do so more efficiently. Also, they grow quickly and soon become too large to be eaten by most fish in the lake. They also spend a good deal of the year over open water where they have few preditors. If you are not careful, you'll end up with a lake that is full of large Gizzards with nothing to feed on them. That is one reason that Hybrid Stripers have been introduced in some smaller lakes in KY (Guist Creek for example). They help to control the shad populations and keep the size down so that other species can also eat the shad.

Andrew

Good post Andrew.