Free the Rivers
John McPhee in his book, The Founding Fish, has many stories about catching shad. Space constraints allow me to relate only two of them.
In one fishing story, a man hooked a shad, but in its fight to get away it jumped into another boat. The owner of the boat claimed it, and said that he needed proof to show his wife he really had been fishing.
John McPhee hooked a shad on the Delaware River near the New Hope-Lambertville area in Pennsylvania. This river is the only major river in the lower 48 states with out an impeding dam which blocks the shad migration. This shad was hooked on light tackle near an overhead highway bridge. It was near the end of the day, and spectators watched him from the bridge. Other boats came in close to see his struggle. It became dark and most of the spectators drifted away. After two hours, 35 minutes the four and three-fourths pound shad was landed, but his reel was destroyed.
On the spawning run, the fish strive to go upstream as far as they have the physical endurance unless there are barriers to their movement. They seem to ‘’want’’ their young to be first in line to the feeding trough of zooplankton moving down the stream. The adult fish do not feed on the spawning run.
A question remains as to why the fish are caught with artificial lures, sometimes even with bare hooks. They do not swallow the lures, thus they are usually caught in the sides of their mouth, so many do escape. An additional problem is that they are great fighters and to not readily give up. Also their mouths are very tender, and they cannot be ‘’horsed’’ in. The dart is the favorite lure and it is thought its presence may only irritate them.
On our recent trip to the American River in California, our grandson, 15 year-old Jacob, hooked a large shad with light tackle on a six pound test line. The fish steadily fought the line about 15 minutes with little progress. Jacob’s father, Bob, waded into the river and worked the fish into a shallower area. Jacob took the pole and Bob planned to grab the shad. Then the line snapped and the shad swam away. It appeared to be about 24 inches long. Grandpa could only watch since his two-day license started the next day.
As before stated, the only major flowing stream that supports shad migration on both coastal rivers in the lower 48 states is the Delaware. They have been known to move hundreds of miles upstream from the sea. On the American River, the major hot spot for catching the spring run is just below the first dam.
The favorite hot spot of all is Holyoke, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River where a record 11 pound, 4 ounce shad was landed. A 30-foot high dam was built on this river in 1849. Two large elevator cars lift several hundred thousand shad each year and deposit them above the dam. School children come to watch the activity. The juvenile fish returning to the ocean in the fall face the danger of the turbines that make electricity.
On the Colombia River, the fish migrate upstream by fish ladders over a series of dams. In most cases, the lower most dams on the rivers are generally more than a hundred miles inland. The Nimbus Dam on the American River is about 150 miles inland. The Red Bluff Diversion Dam on the Sacramento is about 250 miles inland.
Natural falls may sometimes block fish migration. Fish moving from the Gulf of Maine up the Penobscot River can go no farther upstream than the Grand Falls, a distance of 175 miles from the Atlantic. The record distance traveled is from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence upriver to Quebec City through the Lacine Rapids at Montreal and on to the Ottawa River, a distance of 450 miles.
The Federal Government has become very interested in removing dams that are no longer usable, so original migration can be restored. At the Embrey Dam of the Rappahannock River in Virginia, brigades carry shad in buckets and dump them into the water above the dam. In the year 2000, Senators John Warner and Charles Robb helped carry the buckets. They were there to proclaim the imminent removal of Embrey Dam at a cost to the Federal Government of 10 million dollars. This would open 170 miles of spawning water and its major tributary, the Rapidan.
The Feds said “no” to the Edwards Dam, near Augusta Maine, 20 feet high and 900 feet long on the Kennebec River. It was built in 1837 and supplied power to seven sawmills, a gristmill and a machine shop. It was breached July 1, 2000. Now normal stream life is returning such as mallards, peewees, and wood thrushes. Gone are the odors of the impounded waters behind the dam. The white water rapids of Six Mile Falls, after being covered for 163 years resume their restful, spirit-filled music. When the Kennebec was freed, over a thousand spectators watched the destruction of the dam, including the Secretary of the Interior, Babbitt, the governor of Maine and the Augusta mayor.
Now Atlantic sturgeon, salmon, and shad can go to their spawning grounds above the dam. Edwards Dam had been making little electricity since 1913. Less than a year later, a five pound shad was caught above the dam.
In the U.S., there are 66,000 river dams more than five feet high. Wisconsin has removed 75 dams in the last few years, and many other dams are scheduled for removal, for example, the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River in Washington.
Professor E. L. Mosley described the Sandusky River in 1904 as teeming with fish and easy to catch or trap. Sturgeon, muskellunge, white, black and calico bass, catfish, bullheads, suckers, chubs sunfish, perch, eel and the well-noted pickerel (walleye) were plentiful up and down the river. It was a nursery for Lake Erie. The Sandusky must have been a great source of food for the Indians and early settlers.
Jason Traush and Al Bache, in an article titled The Debated Future of the Sandusky River, relate that Fremont is proposing to build two upground reservoirs, making the removal of the Ballville Dam a possibility in the near future. This dam built in 1911, 34 feet high and 432 feet wide provides Fremont’s water supply. Its reservoir has lost about 50% of its storage due to sedimentation. Its removal would have a tremendous impact for the entire area. It would restore 22 miles of traditional spawning habitat, notably for walleye and the small-mouth bass. It would be a dream fishing river from Tiffin to the Sandusky Bay.
We have learned that the St. John’s Dam, built in the thirties, and owned by the American Water Company, is being destroyed. In that area, the Sandusky River will sing its music again.
– Percy