Gizzard Shad or Not

[asdve23rveavwa]

This post relates to one from a couple of days ago. According to info that EHG had dug up, a gizzard shad would not hit a lure. This picture is from a couple years ago...a fish, that I was pretty darn sure was a gizzard shad, had hit Juli's Little Cleo spoon. The hooks were definitely in the mouth. So tell me guys, is it one or not? I say gizzard shad for sure, by the way, it was caught in the harbour at Kincardine...not too far from Bruce Nuclear.

 

[Rod Caster]

Looks like a rapala shad to me.

[canadadude]

I've caught them on spoons,they may not be feeding just hitting because of aggression

[asdve23rveavwa]

Looks like a rapala shad to me.

 

Looks like useless input to me.

[Rod Caster]

Looks like useless input to me.

 

 

Well it sure has the look of a rapala (or other brands) shad imo, especially the profile of the head. Just a passing thought.

[johnnyb]

Pretty sure those are what swim in the St.Clair as well...I used to have no trouble catching them on small silver spoons in the outflow of one of the plants....aggression or food....they're still hitting it.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Well it sure has the look of a rapala (or other brands) shad imo, especially the profile of the head. Just a passing thought.

No sweat

[rufus]

This post relates to one from a couple of days ago. According to info that EHG had dug up, a gizzard shad would not hit a lure. This picture is from a couple years ago...a fish, that I was pretty darn sure was a gizzard shad, had hit Juli's Little Cleo spoon. The hooks were definitely in the mouth. So tell me guys, is it one or not? I say gizzard shad for sure, by the way, it was caught in the harbour at Kincardine...not too far from Bruce Nuclear.

 

 

 

That picture sure does look like a shad. I found another discussion online where they are targeting shad using small spoons so it looks like they will hit lures.

http://www.striperso...ad.php?t=713295

[ehg]

Didn't really want to answer this but since was mentioned in initial post...

 

Gizzard Shad don't hit lures out of aggresion or to feed period. When i put 'Gizzard Shad' into Google this is first thing to come up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_gizzard_shad

 

They filter phyloplankton and sand.

 

Have fished an area polluted with Gizzard Shad for 20+ yrs. They must make up 50% of the biomass there. A few Gizzard Shad have been boated but were snagged accidently. Thousands of other fish hit the lures in that time; brown trout, rainbows, smallies, white bass, walleye, pike, some largemouth, salmon, channel cats, even carp and suckers hit the lures. The few Gizzard Shad were snagged unintentionally.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Didn't really want to answer this but since was mentioned in initial post...

 

Gizzard Shad don't hit lures out of aggresion or to feed period. When i put 'Gizzard Shad' into Google this is first thing to come up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_gizzard_shad

 

They filter phyloplankton and sand.

 

Have fished an area polluted with Gizzard Shad for 20+ yrs. They must make up 50% of the biomass there. A few Gizzard Shad have been boated but were snagged accidently. Thousands of other fish hit the lures in that time; brown trout, rainbows, smallies, white bass, walleye, pike, some largemouth, salmon, channel cats, even carp and suckers hit the lures. The few Gizzard Shad were snagged unintentionally.

 

Then how do you explain the hooks inside the mouth, unless...it was a one in a billion snag that just happened to place the hooks inside the fishes mouth???

On another note, they have got to be the smelliest fish ever, make a musky smell good.

[solopaddler]

Have to say Erik is 100% correct at least in my experience.

 

The only explanation is your fish wasn't a gizzard shad.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Have to say Erik is 100% correct at least in my experience.

 

The only explanation is your fish wasn't a gizzard shad.

 

Well it is the one and only time in many years I've ever seen one caught there, Mike.

However if you google online images of a gizzard shad, the fish matches exactly.

Perhaps it was that one in a billion chance happening

One other thought, just because wikipedia states it doesn't make it true.

[kickingfrog]

I have caught small perch that were the same size as the lure I was using. Hooked in the mouth. Clearly the perch could not have eaten the lure, but it had bit at the lure.

[OhioFisherman]

All the shad that I have caught were snagged, I have never had one hooked in the mouth.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Then what is this fish????????????????????????????????????? I know what it is, whether or not anyone else wants to admit that it is possible, well, that is their problem.

[spinnerbaitking]

My buddy thought the one I caught might be a Moon Eye what's the difference

Richard

[fishinguypat]

I used to catch suckers in shallow rivers with small silver little cleo spoons, When I cast out I saw them swim toards it and hit the lure probably out of aggression.

[solopaddler]

It's impossible to tell from the picture whether your fish had the funky looking dorsal fin common to gizzard shad.

 

I don't know man, there's a lot of different shad species that actually do hit. American shad come to mind although I thought they were confined to the St. Lawrence in the great lakes region..

 

Who knows

[asdve23rveavwa]

It's impossible to tell from the picture whether your fish had the funky looking dorsal fin common to gizzard shad.

 

I don't know man, there's a lot of different shad species that actually do hit. American shad come to mind although I thought they were confined to the St. Lawrence in the great lakes region..

 

Who knows

 

I'm not sure if I still have the other pics or not, but, hey...strange things happen in fishing. Guess that is one of the great things about the sport that we all love. As long as we can't see what is happening beneath us, there is always that "unknown" factor.

Cheers

[bassnass]

If I know one thing, it's that you can never say never when it comes to nature. Identification can't be made based on what a fish hit nor how it was hooked. Want to confirm? Get a hold of a Scott & Crossman and key it out. Usually, you need fish in hand, or at least detailed photographs.

 

That's my 2 cents.