How to keep Shad alive?

[Blue Raider Bob]

Slipped away from work yesterday to lake fish but got bored after 30 minutes without a bite. Saw gobs of bait on my livescope so I got out my cast net and caught dozens. I really stink at throwing the cast-net with only about one in ten being a good pancake opening but I had a blast because with live-scope, you can actually watch the net descend over the schools. After putting about a hundred in my lifewell and turning on the aerator, I headed for home hoping to put the shad in my pond. When I pulled up to my pond, at least half were dead, and the survivors were not in great shape. It is a forty-five minute drive from this lake. Any insight on how to keep shad alive? Do I need air-stones as well as the pump?

[Bluebasser86]

You need a rounded tank and good aerators along with some cool water/weather and plenty of water. Even with all that, you're still going to lose a lot of them. 

[dodgeguy]

first thing to do is check with state regulations and make sure you ARE NOT VIOLATING LAW. bait bucket with air pump and ice  and they make additives for that.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

The guy I used to fish with on the TN River who would get them daily, put them in a round tank as noted above, and they were heavily oxygenated, and we always fished with them in the Fall so heat wasn't an issue.

 

Threadfins are really tough to keep alive.   Might try this product from a site sponsor 

SHAD-KEEPER™ Shad & Blue Back Herring Holding Formula (sure-life.com)

[Blue Raider Bob]

3 minutes ago, dodgeguy said:

first thing to do is check with state regulations and make sure you ARE NOT VIOLATING LAW. bait bucket with air pump and ice  and they make additives for that.

Went to the Tennessee Wildlife website and our two Shad Species are legal to catch and fish with. I am moving them to a private pond on my property so no violations there. Thanks for the suggestion. My live well pumps water into the water so I ordered a 12V aerator. Maybe that will help. Lots of them did swim away after releasing.......but there were also some big swirls out in the pond so for some, the swim was short. Would love for a sustaining population.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 minutes ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Went to the Tennessee Wildlife website and our two Shad Species are legal to catch and fish with. I am moving them to a private pond on my property so no violations there. Thanks for the suggestion. My live well pumps water into the water so I ordered a 12V aerator. Maybe that will help. Lots of them did swim away after releasing.......but there were also some big swirls out in the pond so for some, the swim was short. Would love for a sustaining population.

My home lake stocks 10,000 every year early in the Spring, and then that's followed by fertilizing the lake for a phytoplankton bloom which will feed the Shad.  

 

The thought is that you stock them right before the Shad Spawn, and them give them an immediate influx of food.   I'm not sure the lake would even need to keep stocking them every year, but as far as I'm concerned you can't have too many Threadfins in a lake.       

[WRB]

The problem with live Shad is crowding, 100 Shad in a livewell is 50 too many. What kills live fish in 15 gallon tank is scales clogging gills.

Tom

[Pat Brown]

Maybe try to get some golden shiners.  Much less likely to die during extremes and seem more conducive to stocking and managing small ponds.  Big ones can get pretty darn big too so a good breeding stock can definitely develop and not necessarily be eaten by the bass.  They eat rotting vegetation and stuff like that.  Really interesting fish.   I'm sure a few shad will escape and survive if you do a little drop every time you return from the lake!  Also probably throw the dead ones in with the live ones.  Might increase chances of a live one getting away and it feeds stuff in there even if bass don't eat the dead ones.

[dodgeguy]

1 hour ago, Blue Raider Bob said:

Went to the Tennessee Wildlife website and our two Shad Species are legal to catch and fish with. I am moving them to a private pond on my property so no violations there. Thanks for the suggestion. My live well pumps water into the water so I ordered a 12V aerator. Maybe that will help. Lots of them did swim away after releasing.......but there were also some big swirls out in the pond so for some, the swim was short. Would love for a sustaining population.

Somebody got a meal

[Functional]

for fish load in a fish tank (little different application) is 2" of fish for every gallon. So in a 25 gallon livewell that would put you at 25 fish max. That rule is for long term care and has a filter removing ammonia which feeder fish excrete a lot of so I believe in a short term travel cutting that rule in half to 4" of fish for every gallon you could get away with it making a max of 50 fish. The ride may only be 45 minutes but getting off the water and to the pond you are realistically probably looking at 1.5 hours.

 

Id cap it at 50 fish and if you have the feature let your livewell cycle in fresh water from the lake just before you pull the boat. Along with your new aerator this should give you a better chance. If it works you can try increasing the fish but 100 is a HEAVY load and the sky high ammonia is probably killing most along with lack of oxygen.

[TnRiver46]

100 is Way too many too keep alive in a small box  as others have said. It can be done with a proper filter in a big bait tank, striper guys are masters at it. Gotta use rock salt and ice too. It ain’t worth the trouble to me, I’ve caught many big bass with dead shad 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Get a couple 50 gal plastic drums off Marketplace for like 5-10 bucks a piece.

 

Cut a big opening at the top, and put an airstone/aerator in each one.....those cheap ones from Wally World.     

 

Gather the bait from the shore (this is how we always did it when fishing with threadfins below the TVA dams), and load the 2-3 drums in the back of your truck?.....haul butt back home, dump Shad.....and keep repeating the process until you get tired or they establish a population.  

The problem is though this time of year they won't spawn, so you don't have a chance at establishing that population until late Spring.     

 

This is just how I would go about it, that or I would stock Tilapia in the warm months which will die off in the cold months, and then stock small Rainbows in the winter which will die off in the warm months.......I mean you might as well try to grow the next TN LGM record, right 😎

[Functional]

Another thought came to my head. If you do plan on doing this get a big rubber maid for when you get to your pond. Put the shad in the rubbermaid with their water and slowly over the next 30min to 1 hour take a cup out and put 1 cup of your pond water in until all the water "should" be pond water. The chemistry and temp are very likely different and the shock of being dumped into the pond wont instantly kill them but will put a lot of stress on them. Agencies dump fish into lakes all the time without doing this so its not "necessary" but it will increase the survival rate. 

[Blue Raider Bob]

2 hours ago, Functional said:

Another thought came to my head. If you do plan on doing this get a big rubber maid for when you get to your pond. Put the shad in the rubbermaid with their water and slowly over the next 30min to 1 hour take a cup out and put 1 cup of your pond water in until all the water "should" be pond water. The chemistry and temp are very likely different and the shock of being dumped into the pond wont instantly kill them but will put a lot of stress on them. Agencies dump fish into lakes all the time without doing this so its not "necessary" but it will increase the survival rate. 

Thank you!

I am going to get a 50 gal barrel as AlabamaSpotHunter suggested, and I will follow your lead as well!

Thanks