Shad

“ Leonard asked.
"Yes; that is, of young shad on the way to the sea. The females that are running up now will spawn in the upper and shallow waters of the river, and return to the ocean by the end of June, and in the autumn the small fry will also go to the sea, the females to remain there two years. The males will come back next spring, and these young males are called 'chicken shad' on the Connecticut. Multitudes of these half-grown fish are taken in seines, and sold as herrings or 'alewives'; for the true herring does not run up into fresh water. ”

“ Burdened with the myriad germs of a coming generation, it is the reproductive instinct that impels the shad to quit the security of the deep sea that it may cradle its precious freight in the rocking waters of a clear, running stream. ”

“ The adult shad is an oceanic fish, but each spring it enters one of the inlets or bays and makes its way up to the fresh-water streams to reproduce its kind. The supply of shad for the market is caught during this spring migration, when the fishes enter our inland waters plump and fat after their winter's feast upon the abundant supply of food which they find in the ocean. ”

“ Shad.—Two other anadromous fish deserve notice. The first is the shad, a herring-like fish of which two species, allice and twaite (Clupea alosa and C. finta) , ascend one or two British and several continental rivers in the spring. The twaite is the more common, and in the Severn, Wye and Teme it sometimes gives very fair sport to anglers, taking worm and occasionally fly or small spinning bait. It is a good fighter, and reaches a weight of about 3 lb. Its sheen when first caught is particularly beautiful. America also has shads. ”

“ The flavor of shad, or, in fact, of any other fish, prepared in this manner is superior to that of any other. Fish is less greasy and more wholesome than when fried. Should an oak plank not be obtainable, the shad may be placed in a large roasting pan and baked in oven. Cut gashes across the fish about two inches apart, and place a teaspoonful of butter on each. Bake in oven from 50 to 60 minutes. Serve on a warmed platter, garnished with parsley, and have dinner plates warmed when serving fish on them. ”

“ Thus do those poor creatures expose their own lives to some hazard out of their care to find a more convenient reception for their young, which are not yet alive. Thence it is that at this time of the year, the freshes of the rivers, like that of the Broadruck, stink of fish.
Besides these herrings, there come up likewise into the freshes from the sea multitudes of shad, rock, sturgeon, and some few lampreys, which fasten themselves to the shad, as the remora of Imperatus is said to do to the shark of Tiburon. They continue their stay there about three months. ”

“ Of the shad, man, without doubt, is the greatest agent of destruction, although his wasting effort is exerted only within the borders of his own domain; but beyond, in the open sea, the ranks of the migrating horde are thinned by the shark, porpoise, and dogfish, the seal, otter, and salmon, and, most destructive of all, the bluefish. This dread sea butcher works terrible havoc among all neighboring fish not larger than himself, and in the shoals of shad, like those of the menhaden, he revels in slaughter. ”

“ The shad at their first coming up are fat and fleshy, but they waste so extremely in milting and spawning that at their going down they are poor and seem fuller of bones, only because they have less flesh. As these are in the freshes, so the salts afford at certain times of the year many other kinds of fish in infinite shoals, such as the oldwife, a fish not much unlike a herring, and the sheepshead, a sort of fish which they esteem in the number of their best. ”

“ The mature shad which run the gantlet of all the pounds and traps in the lower waters, and finally reach the mouths of the rivers, are excluded by dams and other obstructions from all the streams which are of most value as feeding-grounds for the young; and the area which is now available for spawning is restricted to the lower waters of the rivers, which are so assiduously swept by drift-nets and seines that each fish is surely captured soon after its arrival, and before it has had an opportunity to deposit its eggs. ”

“ Of all our marine food fish shad may be said to be the most popular; as an edible and as a delicacy it appears upon the table of both the poor and the rich, being equally esteemed by the epicurean as well as by the unpampered palate. ”

“ Shad, like salmon, are found in both salt and fresh water, always ascending rivers for spawning. Shad is caught on the Atlantic Coast of the United States, and its capture constitutes one of the most important fisheries. Shad have a silvery hue, which becomes bluish on the back; they vary in length from eighteen to twenty-eight inches, and are always sold by the piece, price being irrespective of size. ”

“ The shad is a very indifferent fish unless it be large and fat; when you get a good one, prepare it nicely, put some forcemeat inside, and lay it at full length in a pan with a pint of water, a gill of red wine, one of mushroom catsup, a little pepper, vinegar, salt, a few cloves of garlic, and six cloves: stew it gently till the gravy is sufficiently reduced; there should always be a fish-slice with holes to lay the fish on, for the convenience of dishing without breaking it; when the fish is taken up, slip it carefully into the dish ”

“ CATCHING SHAD FOR MARKET. BY J. PARMLY PARET.
Hooks and lines are about as useless in shad-fishing as nets would be if eels were wanted. Not one of those long rows of shad you see in the markets was caught with a hook. ”

“ The fishermen throw their catch into the bottom of the boat, and cast the net back into the water. Then they push along to the next poles, and repeat the same work with the next net.
Down the long row they go, the boat's bottom gradually filling up with the big shad. Sometimes a net will have only one or two in it, while fifteen or twenty are occasionally caught in a single net when the season is at its height. A good haul will often yield three hundred shad, and the fishermen hurry ashore to pack them off to the markets. But shad are not the only fish they get in the nets. ”

“ To how many a country-bred boy has fallen the unhappy lot of being storm-bound when a fishing frolic has been planned! My initial grief was that an April day proved stormy that should have been clear as crystal. The time, the tide, the moon, all the essential and unessential requirements of shad-fishing in Crosswicks Creek, were favorable, and to-morrow, Saturday, I was to be one of the party. A mere onlooker, to be sure, but what mattered that? I had heard of shad-fishing all winter long, and now, being seven years old, was allowed to be one of the party. ”

“ The fact that, in spite of all this, the value of the fisheries has increased eighty-five per cent, seems to prove that the shad is now entirely an artificial product, like the crops of grain which are harvested on our farms. ”

“ We could have lived well, if we had been permitted to boil the shad on the coals, and eat them; for a fat shad will dress itself in being broiled, and is very good, without any oily substance added to it. ”

“ At that time he may be fished for, in the Delaware and in all the rivers in which the Shad run up and spawn, with shad-roe FATALLY.
In waters up which the Shad does not run this bait is useless.
Thus, for instance, at Macomb’s Dam, Kingsbridge, and all the Harlæm River and Hellgate, in the neighborhood of New York, shad-roe is useless; because the Shad do not spawn there, and the Bass know it. While in the Passaic, at Belleville Bridge and Acquanonck, up to both which places these fish run, there is a certainty of taking them with this bait, because Shad do spawn in the Passaic. ”

“ Large schools ascend rivers for long distances in the spring, more particularly those rivers resorted to by the shad, which they seem to follow, perhaps for the purpose of feeding on shad spawn, as they are said to do. ”

“ Just as soon as the last ice has left the rivers the shad-fishermen begin to prepare for the fishing season. They must make the most of the few weeks while it lasts, so they never fail to have all their nets ready as soon as the shad begin to "run"—as they call it when the fish commence to swim up the rivers.
There are two ways of catching shad—by small nets set on poles, and with "seine" nets. Most of the fish we see in the markets are taken in the small nets, as the poles are always used in the rivers where the current runs too fast for the "seines." ”

“ This way of cooking fish cannot be beaten. This is also a good way to cook corn. Just leave on the husks and lay the ears on the coals and by the time the husks have burned off the corn is cooked deliciously. In the regions where shad abounds, there is nothing to be compared with planked shad, and this is the most popular dish. The shad is fastened on an oak shingle and turned before the fire until it is cooked, when it will be found that the fish has absorbed the aroma of the wood and the result is a flavor that delights epicures.
Clam Bake. ”

“ Therefore, in all rivers up which Shad run, the true and best bait for the Striped Bass is the shad-roe.
This must be prepared thus. The roe of the female fish—that is the hard roe—must be taken, cleaned, washed, and washed again, and then potted down with two ounces of salt to every half pound of roe, pressed close into a stone pot and hermetically sealed. After three months it will be fit for use; when it must be cut out of the pot like cheese, fastened on the hook in a small lump, and tied to it by a lapping of light-colored floss silk, or raveled hemp. ”

“ If they are not caught in the spawning season, they can not be caught at all. I heard a prominent fish culturist recently advocating before a committee of the United States Senate, the view that shad should not be caught in the rivers, because they came into the rivers to spawn. ”

“ A crossbar is fastened to one of the poles, high out of water, and the fishermen jump up and down on this until the sapling is driven down firmly into the mud. There are anywhere from twenty to forty of these poles in a row, and they are placed about thirty feet from each other.
At the first sign of the fish the nets are set out on these poles. These shad-nets are like enormous fly-traps, open at one end. The meshes are large enough to let the shad put their foolish heads in the nooses, but not big enough to let their shoulders through. ”

“ Cordial greetings are every where interchanged, and every where the question rises or is answered that determines the market value of the morning; that makes known the signal success of the great haul of Enoch Smith; the further fall of prices in the perspective; and the general promise of the season in the way of shad; and all agree that however large or small may be the supply, never, since the memory of man, have the shad been quite so good as they are this season; and that Connecticut River Shad are decidedly the best imaginable of all possible shad. ”

“ In some cases a new species of fish has been introduced into a particular fishing ground, with marked success. Thus the U.S.A. fisheries collected and hatched the eggs of the shad on the Atlantic coast and introduced the larvae into the Pacific, with the result that a profitable shad fishery has now been established on the Californian coast.
The application of science to the fishing industry is not restricted to biological investigations of the food, habits and development of living fishes. ”

“ The spawn or egg may be destroyed on its outward passage or held back by influences preventing its maturity; or landed on the surface under unfavorable conditions of climate, air, and properties in the water.
Why do shad not exist anywhere in similar coast waters? Where do they come from and is the Gulf Stream to be credited with their origin? Where do the different schools of blue fish, mackerel, herring and numerous other fish find their headquarters to breed, and why after seeking other waters for a season, return to some place that seems to be their “sweet home”? ”

“ The males and females go in separate schools. The males usually precede the females. It is stated by Jordan and Evermann that of 61,000 shad received at the Washington market from March 19 to 24, 99 percent were male. As the season advanced the males became very much less frequent and at the end extremely scarce. The U. S. Bureau of Fisheries has taken especial pains to increase the number of shad in all waters. During the spring of 1900 there were artificially planted in the Atlantic coast streams over 240,000,000 young shad. One fish often contains as many as 150,000 eggs. ”

“ They are principally used to make soup, which is much esteemed by the inhabitants. All their fish are small compared with ours. Besides the catfish which they take in the latter part of the winter, they have the rock, winter shad, mackerel, and perch, shad and herring. The winter shad is very fine indeed. They are like our perch, but infinitely smaller. These fish are sold very low; a large string, enough for a dozen persons, may be purchased for a few cents. No fish, however, that I have tasted, equal our trout. ”

“ Nature seems thus to offer us a hint as to the way in which a fish like the shad, which is so closely allied to the herring, has acquired the habit of ascending rivers to deposit its eggs in purely fresh water. ”

“ Few adult shad escape all the dangers of their journey, and these few are so battered and emaciated that they have no value as food, and are unknown in our markets, which are supplied with those that are captured on their way upward. The young fish remain in the rivers until late in the fall, feeding upon small crustacea, the larvæ of insects, the young of other fishes, and minute active animals, and they grow to a length of two or three inches by November, when they leave our waters for the ocean. ”