i was at the local park today, and saw about 20 dead shad in the water. i only covered a small portion of the lake, and there were a few dead shad at each spot i fished, so im sure there are hundreds of dead ones around the entire lake.

these are pretty big shad (i think) they were all about 7-9 inches long.

is this big for a shad?

they were floating and decomposing in the shallow water and stunk really bad!

what do you suppose could have caused all of these shad to die? i was guessing it was some kind of "shad-killin' disease" that was goin' around. any thoughts?

Maybe someone was using blast caps the night before and killed lots of them. Could also be that someone has dumped some type of chemical in a certain part of the lake.

It all depends on what body of water you are on. I have caught shad that are fairly large that weighed about 5-6 lbs. I usually catch them only to bag them up for catfish bait.

I am not to sure what to tell you about the shad dying. :-/

Maybe someone was using blast caps the night before and killed lots of them. Could also be that someone has dumped some type of chemical in a certain part of the lake.

what do you mean by blast caps? is that something you put in the water to kill a bunch of fish that are in the immediate area?

and as for the chemical, the dead fish were showing up all over the lake, so if there was a chemical involved, it must have been a whole lot of it.

the water was very muddy and there was like some kind of scum pollution on top. not sure if this is a natural pollution (kinda looked like the scum pollen leaves behind) or not. maybe that has something to do with it.

Did you see any other fish in the pond, dead or alive?  Did you catch anything?

There may have been some sort of algae bloom that messed with the oxygen levels in the water.  I am just throwing that out, don't even know if that is a valid possibility.

i did actually see a few dead panfish (bluegill and redear), but only a few (like 3).

the fishing sucked REALLY BAD!

out of about 4 or so hours, i only caught one bass and my friend only caught one. they were small (about 12-14 inches) but they looked very healthy, nothing wrong at all.

we also caught a few tiny bluegill on some bread.

Could be lack of oxygen or someone put a chemical in the pond.

However, since you did catch bass and bream I would think whatever it is did not affect the entire pond.

Maybe you should call the Maryland Game and Fisheries and ask them.

They may be able to give you an answer or go out and study what happened.

However, since you did catch bass and bream I would think whatever it is did not affect the entire pond.

EXACTLY! that is what's stumping me. that is why i figured it must be something that would only affect the shad.

some kinda shad killin' disease

Adult shad die off every year here in PA. State. Close to 15" on many and some as small as 8". Its common and it dosent mean any of the above like low D.O. , poison or blasting caps. They did say a Lake NOT a Pond. Die off happens after the spawn for landloch shad.

I don't know if you have gizzard shad out there, but I know they get big.  I'd report it to your local g&f...especially if you see any other species floating around.

Maybe someone was using blast caps the night before and killed lots of them. Could also be that someone has dumped some type of chemical in a certain part of the lake.

what do you mean by blast caps? is that something you put in the water to kill a bunch of fish that are in the immediate area?

and as for the chemical, the dead fish were showing up all over the lake, so if there was a chemical involved, it must have been a whole lot of it.

the water was very muddy and there was like some kind of scum pollution on top. not sure if this is a natural pollution (kinda looked like the scum pollen leaves behind) or not. maybe that has something to do with it.

My gramps has told me stories of people he knew using home made blasting caps (kinda like a mini stick of dynamite I'm assuming) to stun/kill bait fish in the area to collect and use for bait but its very illegal down here in VA.

If there are no other dead species other than shad, and all the shad are about the same size, then it's probably a shad die-off. We get them in Virginia. On the tidal creeks I fish I've seen (I'm guessing) 100+ in a day. Big shad either dead or dying. If it's a die-off, it's normal.

Otherwise, it's probably a low-oxygen issue, but all size shad should be affected.

I saw the same thing last year in a Va. lake. The cause was the shad were trying to spawn and the water temp was too high for them to endure the stress.

ok i guess it is just a die off then, because they were all about 7-9 inches long which i think is pretty big for a shad in that small lake.

thanks for the help guys.

yea last spring i was at a local strip pit and i npticed literally 100s of dead shad washed up on one bank of the lake

Smelled really bad.......

THOSE ARE BIG SHAD!!! that is very weird, i dont have a clue what happened.

I went out on the Chickahominy River today.  Over the course of the day, I saw about 20 blue catfish, all about 20 inches long, floating belly up.   Wonder what happened to them?   :-?