It was similar to the rate seen in 2020. Another key food source, gizzard shad, had a weak hatch in 2021. The DNR says those fish have not had a strong hatch since 2016.

One of thousands of dead gizzard shad that washed ashore in Oneida Lake last week in a mysterious die-off event. Shad are an important prey species for walleye and other fish popular with anglers.

Events like this happen every winter in bodies of water that contain American Gizzard Shad. Drastic changes in temperature can also contribute to this.

If bait fish like gizzard shad die off more, the other fish will be hungrier and bite better during the spring and summer fishing season. “They’re the number one prey food,” Wolfe said.

A man recently hauled in the catch of a lifetime from the Missouri River, a “monster” 86-pound blue catfish near Washington, ...

Dead gizzard shad float on the surface of the Cedar River near the boat launch at Ellis Harbor in northwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025.

He says the gizzard shad either came through natural immigration into the spring-fed lake during the high flow-through event in May 2021 or through unauthorized public stocking.

Now, American shad are causing the most trouble for fish ladders in the region, she said. “They kind of chill out. They don’t necessarily go all the way out of our ladder and then they spawn.

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologists found gizzard shad in Scott State Fishing Lake in August 2022. (Courtesy KDWP) The biologists say the gizzard shad averaged 5.7 inches ...

Wyoming has a new gizzard shad record thanks to the efforts of 15-year-old Torrington-area angler Dawson Reifschneider. He caught his record fish out of the North Platte River near Torrington ...

UPDATED: July 6, 2023 at 8:10 PM EDT American shad — fish that migrate from oceans to rivers every spring to spawn — are making a comeback in New England’s longest coastal river without dams.

The gizzard shad in Minnesota are at the northern-most reach of their native range, making them a fish out of water, so to speak, during Minnesota winters, where they tend to fend poorly against ...