Fishing the Bay with the Slayer

[TubeDude]

When we got there yesterday, the water moving down the baffles was a torrent and temps in the south marina were several degrees cooler than the main lake. I guess I'm not surprising with the downpour we got the day before, it was still surprising to see so many dead shad. As we both know it happens every year but it sure seems strange it happened this early. I guess the water temps have dropped 10 degrees in the last week or two but I alway thought it took a lot more of a temp drop than that for the die off to begin. Another thing that surprised us was the lack of Terns and Seagulls picking off those baby shad on the surface, do they only go for the live ones ? One other thing that they have added is two big black pipes going from the channel above the baffles, all the way down to the area behind the pump house, made we wonder if the pump were broken or the lines from the pump house were clogged. I noticed it two week ago too, just did not mention it in my post.

The late fall shad dieoff usually starts around the end of October into November...as water temps move below about 55 degrees.  That is when the zooplankton thin out and the late-hatching baby shad have not developed enough to be able to live on anything besides the zooplankton.  They starve to death. 

Gizzard shad are a lot more tolerant of low water temps than threadfin shad.  The latter have big dieoffs when the water temps get  below about 50 degrees.  Gizzard shad can live under the ice in water temps only a bit above freezing.  But even gizzard shad experience winter kills to some extent.  We see lots of them floating up under the ice during the winter and around the edges of the lake when the ice cap comes off.

The only reason I can suggest for the seeming lack of bird activity on the dead shad is that they started feeding on them at daybreak and were full by the time you guys hit the water.  I see that a lot...since I am often on the water right at daybreak.

I suspect that the pipes are some kind of "backup" system...to provide water for the water users even if the canal is not full enough to spill over the baffles.