keepind shad alive. HELP!!!

[raray1221]

I have recently started striper fishing and cathcing shad. how do you keep them alive. we use tap water (treated) and add some shad keeper. still losing many. we use a well insulated and aerorated tank (round) and still loses. i think b/c of stress and water temp but we keep the water cool. any help on keeping them alive would be great. and any striper tip would be nice, im new and dont know much!!!thanks

 

[bchaffin125]

Re: keepind shad alive. HELP!!!

I have never used shad to catch stripe. I use what is called a small tuffy minnow which may be in the shad family. I use a regular minnow bucket and change the water daily. I live near a pond and just got to the pond and empty my water and get new out of the pond. I leave them outside to keep cold. I live in alabama and the nights are averaging 40 degrees right now. About a month ago my minnow bucket had a thin sheet of ice across the water and the minows seem to thrive in it i didn't change the water for two days but I still lose 1 or 2 a day. I hope that this info may help you in some way good luck!

 

[rolmops]

Re: keepind shad alive. HELP!!!

Shad are a very fast swimming fish,that easily panic.They should not be crowded into a small bait bucket.
I have had good results with a dozen per 5 gallon bucket with some ice to keep them very cool.Another thing I use is an oxygenizer instead of an air pump.This little gizmo separates hydrogen from oxygen in the bucket and provides a very oxygen rich environment,without noisy pumps.Finally,do keep the bucket covered so they don't have to panic at every shadow that comes near the bucket. This way I have been able to keep them over night.

 

[beerfilter]

Re: keepind shad alive. HELP!!!

Good advice so far , just remember a few key things :
ROUND container , otherwise they crowd up in a corner and die out of spite .

1-2 dozen to 5 gallons of water , max . This number decreases with the size of shad you are using . 2 dozen shad ~1 1/2" long , 1 dozen shad ~ 4" long .
The larger they are , the fewer you can keep . The ammonia from thier own waste builds up fast , and kills them quick .
This is the greatest problem I see . People expect to keep 30-100 in a small tank and end up killing all of them .

Avoid aereators that put a lot of bubbles in the tank . This freaks them out and they panic and die .
Either get 1 of those oxygenizers , or , use an aereator in a seperate container , and , circulate the water between the tanks .
The circulating pump will also give them a little current to swim against , keeping them occupied .

Shad are notoriously difficult to keep alive , but these tips should help improve your luck .

The shad keeper does help , btw , along with keeping the tank covered .

 

[Starcraftguy1]

Re: keepind shad alive. HELP!!!

I catch them all the time and keep them in my big livewell on my bass tracker,it is 20 gallons and after a sccop of them they stay good in thier own lake water with the recirlator on.