Conowingo Reservoir

[Nickyboy]

Just thought some of you guys might be interested because I saw something new this weekend. I went out this weekend with my father on the Conowingo Reservoir and the place was loaded with dead shad floating on the waters surface. I have never caught a shad. Do they die after they spawn or was this a water temp. issue or something?

 

[Nickyboy]

I take that back I have caught shad just not in fresh water. Excuse me.

 

[Mike]

Nick:

Define "loaded with dead shad." Some anglers see five dead trout and there has been a major fish kill in their minds. So, I need some density info. Was there a dead shad every 30 feet in any direction that you would look and did that continue wherever you went on the reservoir? If so, then that would be cause to say "loaded" with dead shad. Were there piles of dead shad by the hundreds lining the leeward side of the impoundment? If so, then that would be "loaded" with dead shad. So, how many were there? A description of the density and area over which this density was seen would be helpful. Finally, are you certain that they were American shad, or were they gizzard shad? The species makes a difference as to what may have caused the die-off.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Very interesting, I had just posted about seeing a dead shad below the York Haven Dam on Sunday, about 10- 11 inches.

I only saw one dead shad though during my float.

 

[Nickyboy]

Well the reservoir is a big body of water and we were hitting many different places on a bass boat. It seemed that the dead shad were congregating where the current had forced them to one side of the reservoir probably due to current and wind. I am unsure what type of shad they were but there was probably one floating every thirty or forty feet over an area of water that was about the size of a couple of football fields. I don't think they died where they were floating but drifted over from somewhere else in the reservoir.

 

[snuffysmith]

There is a percentage of shad that die every spawning season. some years more than others. Sounds normal to me

 

[billmcwha]

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission lifted and passed 37,757 American Shad at the Conowingo Dam Fishlift. The Holtwood Dam Fishlift passed 16,472 American Shad. This left 21,285 American Shad stuck in the Conowingo pool to die with no suitable spawning gounds.
This year was a good year for passing shad at Holtwood. The water must have been low and apparently the shad were not confused by having water spill over the western side of the dam. Still only 43% of the fish passed at Conowingo managed to find the Holtwood lift.
The Delaware River Shad Fishermen's Association has called for a suspension of lifting shad at Conowingo until the lift problems at Holtwood are fixed. Hopefully that will be soon with new construction, for added generation, planned at Holtwood.
On average over the last 30 years 68% of the American Shad passed at Conowingo never find their way past Holtwood. They become stuck in the Conowingo pool which becomes their biological dead-end.