[David]

Was fishing monday and tuesday nights on fox lake. Caught a bunch of shad up to 5inches in my cast net. I have fished the chain my whole life and never caught or heard of shad there before. Have they been in the chain a long time? Anways caught alot of whitebass, sheephead, and catfish. Catfish on cut and live shad. With all the shad the gamefish will be getting fat!

David

[ToddM]

Shad are not native to the chain and they are not known to be in there. They were most likely illiegally introduced. Been known to happen in other waters as well. As a musky fisherman, I like the idea as more muskies can be stocked to control them. All the game fish will benefit.

One thing I have noticed in lakes that have shad and carp, the carp are not overabundant. Present yes but not in the huge numbers seen in the chain now. Maybe that could be a plus too if they take off.

[CATMAN]

Todd,
On a recent shocking trip I took with the DNR, I asked about shad being in the Fox chain. they told me that they do exsist. Wether they were native or not we did not discuss.

[Wal-Ski]

I got about a dozen over the last week also! 4-7 inchers. Fox river and connecting creeks in the Elgin area. First time I've seen them here in 3 years of netting.

[David]

Thanks for the replies. I caught a few dozen of them 2 - 5 inches, so they must be reproducing. It would be nice if they balanced the carp population. I throw the cast net alot for bait and this was the first time i seen them. Also caught alot of shiners. There were alot of whitebass feeding on them. There was a kid casting a mepps spinner doing really good. He had a nice basket of whitebass. I tried a roostertail in several colors and couldnt get any. Got some on bobber and shiners. The catfish were decent up to around 5lbs. No walleyes. We were fishing from the shore.

[muskysucker]

I have heard from the DNR that shad have been caught the last 2 years in the nets in the spring. They claim from all the flooding the last 4 years they have been swimming over the dams. If they can take hold I can bet fishing will only get better with much larger fish all around.

[gojoe]

If only they would swim up the fish ladder! I can tell you below the dam they are in abundance.

GoJoe