I decided to go to the dam for some topwater striped bass action today and found hardly any water coming down. The tide was very low. A perfect opportunity to finally go out and stand on the front ledge and do some investigating( lost lures, rockpiles, pools, etc). I noticed a few fish floating on the surface and then. ton of them lying dead or half dead on the bottoom. It was right by the ledge where the water flows down from. I also saw a pretty decent size school of gizzard shad still alive, but lookin lethargic and slow. They were all big ones too. I never seen this before. It seems to coincide with the lack of water downpour. I was thinking lack of oxygen or maybe they came down from the lake above and most of them died from the stress of impact. I gathered about 8 of them and put them in the freezer for bait later. Visiblity was pretty good, but didn't see any stripers just shad. The striper bite was zero too, unsurprisngly. I never saw gizzzard shad like this before. I'm mostly used to seeing the migratory hickory shad or herring. It's like a small hurricane came by and dumped them all out. Just thought I'd share as I thought it was pretty cool and got some fresh bait too for later.

happens most every summer at the golf course....... I really got to watch water levels and make sure not to pump too much cold water into the hot pond.

 

 

I really think once those gizzard shad get about a foot long they just get old and any stress gets them.

This happens in the Niagara River during winter occasionally when the water get to cold for the shad, a lot die off because they are sensitive to the cooler water temps.