Common Shad; American Shad 



planted in the Atlantic Coast streams a total of 241,056,000 

 young shad. 



The shad is very prolific. Single fish have been known to yield 

 from 60,000 to 156,000 eggs, though the usual number does not 

 exceed 30,000. The eggs are very small, semi-buoyant, and 

 usually require 6 to 10 days for hatching, the time varying with 

 the temperature of the water. 



Unlike most other fishes shad roe is considered a great del- 

 icacy when fried; and ever since the days of George Washington 

 and John Marshall "planked shad" has been regarded as the acme 

 of success in the preparation of a delicious fish for the table. 

 And a planked shad dinner at Marshall Hall, near Mount Vernon, 

 is quite sure to constitute a feature in the spring programme of 

 many Washington societies. 



After entering the rivers, the shad take but little, if any, food 

 previous to spawning, but after casting its eggs it will strike at flies or 

 other small shining objects, and it has been known to take the 

 artifical fly. 



Though there is but one species of shad on our Atlantic Coast 

 it has received almost as many vernacular names as there are rivers 

 which it enters, as Potomac shad, Susquehanna shad, Delaware shad, 

 North River shad, and Connecticut shad; and the people on each 

 particular stream regard their shad as the best; and all are right, for 

 the sweetness and delicate flavour of the shad depend much upon its 

 freshness. The shad one gets from a nearby river are apt to reach 

 the table fresher than those shipped from a distance. 



The shad is the most valuable river fish of the Atlantic Coast, and, 

 next to the Chinook salmon, the most important species inhabiting the 

 fresh waters of North America. Among all the economic fishes of the 

 United States only the cod and the Chinook salmon exceed it in value. 

 In 1896 the shad catch of the Atlantic seaboard numbered 19,145,395 

 fish, weighing 50,847,967 pounds, and worth to the fishermen 

 $1,656,580. 



Head 4^; depth 3; D. 15; A. 21; scales 60; ventral scutes 21 + 16. 

 Body comparatively deep; mouth rather large, the jaws about equal, 

 the lower fitting into a notch in the tip of the upper; gillrakers 

 extremely long and numerous, usually about 40+68, the total varying 

 from 93 to 1 19; fins small, the dorsal much nearer the snout than base 

 of caudal; peritoneum white. Colour, bluish above, sides silvery 

 white; a dark spot behind opercle, and sometimes several along the 



107 



