what are these fish?  some links to some freshwater shad pics would be cool.  Not even sure if the lakes up here in mi have them, and if so what they look like and what habitats they prefer.

thanks

-Seeker

Hey Seeker,

Here's a link on the American shad. Hope this helps! You can always google on shad for more info as well!

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/american_shad.cfm

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=shad&fr=FP-tab-img-t&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8

ok from what 'v found online seems like mi has only Gizzard shad, and it seems to me that most inland lakes do not have them.  Just wondering if anyone from up north can confirm this.

-Seeker

Hey Seeker,

Check this out! This may help you!

http://www.michigandnr.com/PUBLICATIONS/PDFS/fishing/names_of_MIfishes.pdf

Sometimes I think northern fisherman refer to any unidentified baitfish as "shad".....I know the guys on my lake refer to them all the time, and I asked a Fish and Game guy if there were any in the lake, and he told me no....

When I hear the word "shad", without any qualifiers, I take it to mean threadfin shad. We don't have them up north and I agree with Yankee that people toss the term around loosely. We do have gizzard shad, but I don't know that they behave like threadfin.