Shad - Some Thoughts on the American Fish

I think that Europe never had

A fish as tasty as the shad.

   — Ogden Nash

I have been fishing since I was a very young boy . . . on the rivers and lakes of the American Midwest, the streams of western North Carolina and north Georgia, the interior and coastal waters of Florida and Maine, the headwaters of the Connecticut River in northern New Hampshire, and the Pacific waters off of Southern California.  I have also fished in Canada, Ireland, France, as well as Germany and the UK where I was first introduced to shad.  I never fished for them there, however, as shad had not been considered a food fish since the 19th century. 

European shad species – Allis shad and Twaite shad -- are members of the Clupeidae family – and are closely related to the herring and found from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.  They are an anadromous fish (living in both salt and freshwater environments).  Mature shad spend their life at sea, but in the spring (usually in the month of May), shad of 4-6 years migrate far up rivers into freshwater to breed and spawn.  The young shad live in freshwater for up to two years before they return to the sea where they will remain until they reach sexual maturity.  Today shad are absent from many areas where they were once abundant; major European rivers such as the Rhine, Elbe and Thames are now devoid of shad and they are no longer found in landlocked European countries where they used to be present during their migrations.   Overfishing and poor water quality have played a part, yet the biggest contributor to the reduction of shad populations are obstructions such as dams and weirs.

When I moved here to Maryland 46 years ago I was introduced to the waters of the Chesapeake and its tributaries.  Yet there are two fish – according to John McPhee the “Founding Fish of America” – once common to the Eastern Seaboard and the Chesapeake that have largely remained a mystery to me.  I am referring to the “delicious” American shad (Alosa sapidissima) and the hickory shad (Alosa mediocris).  Like their European cousins, they are members of the herring family (Clupeidae) and spend the majority of their adult lives at sea and migrate up coastal rivers in April and May to spawn in freshwater.  The best place to find shad is the Connecticut River (it is the state fish of Connecticut) although shad spawn in rivers as far south as Florida.

McPhee’s moniker is attributed to the fact that shad were a main food source for native Americans and colonists, and have been associated with other personalities and events of early American history, including William Penn, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, and even Abraham Lincoln.  There is the popular story – more likely a myth –  that it was the shad that saved General George Washington’s Continental Army during its encampment at Valley Forge during the severe winter of 1777-1778.  Threatened with starvation and little chance of fresh supplies, a false spring freshet supposedly enticed a “biblical proportion” of shad to begin an early run up the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.  Yet nowhere in his extensive letters and diary entries during that time did Washington make any reference to the miracle appearance of shad.  Nor would a brief early freshet trigger such a large scale migration.  Finally, archeological digs in the area have failed to turn up any shad bones in the vicinity of the winter encampment.  Whether this story is true or not, it is clear that the shad was considered an important food source at the time.  According to Rich Remer, writing for The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “The magnitude of the spawning runs of the eighteenth and nineteenth century shad schools in America was legendary.”  For most of American history, early spring meant a feast of shad although this tradition has since faded.   

Shad has a particularly strong historical nexus with the Commonwealth of Virginia although its official state fish is the brook trout.  George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both partial to shad and it was frequently served at Mount Vernon and Monticello.  Washington made a good income selling shad netted from the Potomac River.  Records show that in 1772 alone, more than 1 million shad and herring were netted at Washington’s Virginia estate.

Civil War soldiers had rations of shad, and John McPhee, in The Founding Fish (2002), tells us that it was shad that spelled doom for the General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in early April 1865 as it was mounting a final defense of the Confederate capital at Richmond.  On April 1, 1865, Lee’s headquarters was near Petersburg south of Richmond.  With Union General Philip Sheridan and 3,000 troops advancing from the southeast, Lee ordered General George Pickett to defend Five Forks, a strategic road junction situated six miles south of the Appomattox River.  It and the Southside Railroad were the last remaining supply lines to Richmond.   Citing historian Shelby Foote, McPhee writes that when the battle ensued Pickett was two miles behind the Confederate line dining with Tom Rosser and Fitzhugh Lee, two other generals.  The shad were running in the Appomattox River and Rosser had several caught for their midday dinner.  By the time Pickett returned to his station his division had been routed and Lee was forced to evacuate Petersburg.   Lee surrendered to Grant and Appomattox Courthouse eight days later.

Shad has remained popular into the 21st century as a ritual meal for Virginia politicians during an annual springtime event known as shad planking.  This tradition began shortly before World War II when Sussex County’s Democrats gathered to celebrate the annual shad spawning run on the James River.  The fish were butterflied and nailed to hardwood oak planks and smoked over large wood fires.  Begun primarily as a social gathering, it has since become a more bipartisan affair, often an opportunity for state politicians running for office to meet constituents and give speeches.  But the real focus was on the shad served up with potato salad, collard greens, and cold beer.

Given it importance throughout history it is safe to say that shad, whether it be smoked, grilled whole, baked, or deep-fried,  makes for some mighty fine eating.  Still, they are not to everyone’s liking.  Many, like Ogden Nash, complain about it many bones. 

Some people greet the shad with groans,

Complaining of its countless bones;

I claim the bones teach table poise

And separate the men from boys.

Shad have a sweet and delicate flesh that is healthy . . . but oh those bones!  This problem can be partially alleviated by baking the fish to soften them.  Others might be put off by it oily texture, but it has a wondrous flavor and is high in Omega 3.  Just a little salt and pepper and spritz of lemon and its flesh will melt in your mouth. 

Shad is also famous for its roe although it is not cheap.  Females are laden with delicate eggs as they swim up their spawning rivers.  A pair of lobe-shaped egg sacs can run upwards of $15 and they are only available in the early spring.  Low in calories, roe is unfortunately high in cholesterol.  Yet shad roe has one important quality going for it; “the roe is boneless, utterly” (Nash).  Roe can be an acquired taste similar to that of liver and other sweetbreads, but when sautéed or fried properly to a golden brown in butter or bacon grease with a little garlic, it as a smooth and rich savory flavor, often taking on the those of whatever it is cooked with.  Bacon has long been a traditional pairing with just a little bit of pepper, capers, and lemon.  Taking caution to cook the roe at a low temperatures to avoid bursting the eggs sac, it can be eaten by itself or mixed with scrambled eggs, in an omelet, or with grits.  Some prefer it raw served with cream cheese or a plain yogurt.  

So what is so special about the shad today?  My knowledge of the shad fishery is limited mainly to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including the Susquehanna River headwaters and its eastern and western shore tributaries.  Throughout the colonial period, schools of springtime migratory American shad became an important part of Chesapeake culture and the Bay’s largest and most important fishery.  They make their spring migration from the Gulf of Mexico to the Chesapeake every year to spawn in the Bay’s many freshwater tributaries.  Farmers would spread vast nets across the rivers and those not destined for the larder were used to fertilize crops.  By summer, shad would leave the Bay and return to sea.  The hickory shad, identified by its prominent protruding jaw, is often confused with American shad yet its is not as prominent in the Chesapeake and northward as the Bay is near the fish's northern limit.  American shad are the largest (and considered the most delicious) of all the shads, often measuring 20-24 inches but can grow larger.  The largest American shad ever recorded was 30 inches in length.

Given it long association with the development of the United States, it is sad to say that the noble shad has fallen on hard times.  Conservation experts have reported that the current American shad population is well below those of the early 20th century as a result of overfishing, dams construction, habitat destruction, and non-commercial by-catch from trawler fishing for other species on the open Atlantic.  Many traditional shad fisheries, including the Chesapeake Bay watershed, have now been closed since 1980 with a moratorium on the harvesting of all shad to give the population a chance to rebuild this important fishery.  Here in Maryland and DC (where it is also the official fish of the Nation’s Capital) both hickory and American shad have closed seasons and all fish must be immediately released.  American shad are also closed in Virginia yet up to 10 hickory shad can be harvested on specified waterways.  These moratoriums seem to be working as shad number are beginning to increase.  Georgia and the Carolinas now have approved sustainable commercial shad fishing and they are probably the source of any shad currently found in stores and restaurants. 

Beginning in the mid-1990's, the upper Chesapeake Bay stocks of American shad began to increase and a viable catch and release fishery reemerged in the Susquehanna River, particularly in the Maryland section below Conowingo Dam completed in 1928.  Presently, the Susquehanna, Nanticoke, and Patuxent Rivers – all of them Bay tributaries – have seen their shad population rebound and remain relatively strong and are the primary systems that support viable American shad stocks in Maryland.  Beginning last year steps have been taken to capture shad below the Conowingo Dam and trucking them upstream before releasing the fish back into the river to continue their spawning migration.

It has been many years since I first fished Maryland’s Susquehanna River below the Conowingo Dam built in 1928.  An aquatic elevator, the largest of its kind in the world, was installed in 1991 at a cost of $12 million to, along with a smaller elevator constructed in 1972, lift fish almost 100 feet so that they might continue their spawning run into Pennsylvania and as far north as the Catskill Mountains in New York.  Today there are four additional dams with “fishways” along the lower Susquehanna in Pennsylvania.  These lifts were ostensibly constructed to assist the once abundant spring shad spawning migration leaving the Chesapeake just a dozen miles to the south of the Conowingo Dam and entering the Bay’s largest tributary.  Anglers still target shad as a catch-and release fishery, and it was below the dam where I caught my first and only shad.  Today most anglers at the dam are catching large catfish and smallmouth bass earning it praise as “ the best fish by a dam site.”  Many hope to snag a nice and tasty blue catfish, and there are large flatheads holding in the dam pool looking for tidbits of fish coming out of the turbine wash.  And there are always some shad in the mix if your timing is good during the spring.

It is a sad fact that we will probably never again see the shad population return to its early abundance, the “savior fish” of the Native Americans and the early American colonists.  That said, let us be thankful that there are efforts to same America’s Founding Fish.