I was running my Red Eye Shad along some shoreline weeds the other day and ended up snagging this guy in the back.  What is it?  I was looking online and I think it looks like a gizzard shad.  Can someone verify that for me or else just tell me what the heck this thing is?

 

Shad. What species? Hard to tell.

Looks to me like gizzard shad

Did it have a long tentacle hanging off the dorsal fin? If so, gizzard shad. 

 

But yeah, the body shape/color and eye appears to be a gizzard shad. Now, get some cranks and match that color! 

Looks like a gizzard shad to me.  Did it have a stong smell and an oily skin?

Gizzard Shad

Did it have a long tentacle hanging off the dorsal fin? If so, gizzard shad. 

 

But yeah, the body shape/color and eye appears to be a gizzard shad. Now, get some cranks and match that color! 

 

I'm pretty sure it didn't have the tentacle on the dorsal fin but I suppose it could have been bitten off or lost somehow.  I mean, people catch catfish that are missing whiskers sometimes right?

 

 

Looks like a gizzard shad to me.  Did it have a stong smell and an oily skin?

 

It was really slimy but I didn't notice any kind of smell.

 

 

 

Whatever the species, I know it's a shad now and that's good enough for me.

The one that has the tentacle on the dorsal fin is actually a Threadfin Shad. What you have looks like a gizzard, and a pretty big one at that.

The one that has the tentacle on the dorsal fin is actually a Threadfin Shad. What you have looks like a gizzard, and a pretty big one at that.

 

look at the picture on the right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_gizzard_shad

 

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/americangizzardshad.asp

 

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=492

look at the picture on the right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_gizzard_shad

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishfacts/americangizzardshad.asp

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=492

So both have the tentacle on the dorsal fin...did not know that.

I don't think I have seen a shad that size in quite a while.

We get some kind of shad up here that gets about a foot or more long. Might be American Shad? They come in the tribs off Lake Ontario at ice out. There's also a die off a little later in spring. Some of the carcasses are huge. Northern pike go on a feed fest, just coming out of the tribs for their post spawn.

Bottom line, those Shad are big part of the food chain. I think this points to succes of big baits up north, not the usual thinking that success with big baits is linked to stocker trout.

American shad get huge. 12"er would be a young one. 20-24" is an adult and they can weigh up to 6lbs+

 

We have tons of gizzard shad here on the Miss river and a lot of them die off during harsh winters. I've snagged them up to 15" or so. Ours mostly have a deep gray body with a dark blue back. 

 

http://fish101.community.uaf.edu/files/2013/03/gizzard-shad.jpg

I've snagged gizzard shad close to 2 pounds on jigging spoons in the hot water discharge at the power plant lakes during the winter. That one is about the average size we see during the winter there, and bass will surely eat them that size.