JD
Can a person eat shad? if so… how?
–Mike
Mike, well I must say that, though I’ve caught a zillion of them, I’ve never eaten one. On the East Coast (where shad originated) they are an important food fish and in fact, their scientific name, alosa sapidissima means “most savory.”
I don’t think there’s any question that the shad has some value as a food fish…after all, people eat other herrings all around the world. However, the big issue here is they’re full of bones — three rows of Y bones to be exact. In doing some internet searching for shad recipes, here are some of the quotes I found that may tell you all you need to know…
Jay Harlow at sallybernstein.com starts his article on cooking shad with this quote:
“Some foods seem to have been put on earth to challenge the ingenuity of the cook…”
Hank Shaw on about.com has this to say:
“From an eating standpoint, the American or White Shad is a mixed blessing. Shad are richly flavored thanks to a good bit of omega-3 laden fat, but they are among the boniest fish in the world. An old Indian saying has it that a porcupine fled into the water and was turned inside out to become the shad. It is not far off.”
So, I guess you can make your mind up from there…
So, I had some guys out shad fishing on the American River last night and Mike O’Connell of Danville hooks into this thing that looks like a striper in the water…wait, no, is that a small king?? That can’t be a shad…what the hell is it?
Holy crap…that is a shad!
In fact, it was definitely the largest shad I’ve ever seen. My Boga had it at 6 point something pounds and a quick guesstamation put her at about 24-25 inches. Even at that, she was still a pound and change off the state record and 5 pounds off the world mark. Can you imagine an 11-pound shad? If these things got to 20 pounds, you’d never land ‘em! [click to continue…]
Well, we had a good day on the ol’ Rio Americano Wednesday…I have a couple of shad/striper trips — a half day morning run and then a full day mission until dark after that…and the fishing was about as good as you can get!
We started off throwing swimbaits for stripers and caught a couple dandies…the 20ish pounder above taken by Bryce Roberts of Auburn, CA and then another nice one, caught by Jay Lopes, who was taking the day off from running halibut charters in the Bay…
Even the salty skipper needs to get bit once in a while!
But that only tells half of the story…
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They’re silvery and come from the ocean in huge numbers. They fight great on light tackle and they’re in West Coast rivers right now. Yep, we’re talking American Shad here. But do you really know these guys?
Take our first-ever (and last) American Shad Quiz and find out how much info about these scrapply little battlers you’ve got locked up in your noodle.
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Spring’s here and that means it’s time for American Shad! Here’s a quick crash course on just exactly what these things are…and how to catch ‘em: [click to continue…]
Every year at this time there seems to be quite a bit of confusion about shad fishing – and shad in general – and I often have to field a million questions like: What the heck is a shad? and Shad are just small baitfish…why would anybody fish for those things? So, I figured it was time to clear a few things up. With that in mind, here’s my graduate crash course on shad and shad fishing. You will not be tested.
Baitfish vs. Gamefish
The first thing we need to set straight is there are several types of shad. In California, we have two varieties: threadfin and American and this is where most of the misunderstanding begins. Threadfin shad are small baitfish that live in most of our lakes and reservoirs and rarely top 4 inches. American shad, on the other hand, run anywhere from 2 to 7 pounds and spend their lives in the ocean and then come up freshwater streams to spawn in the spring of each year. Aside from the size difference, the two species look similar to one another – deep bodies, big eyes, large silver scales and forked tails. Neither is native to the West Coast.
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