Stripers eating shad

[sparky1423]

What is so appealing to the stripers staging in the Susquehanna Flats are the herring and shad. This gives the stripers a chance to feed before and after the spawn. Recently, I was fishing the North East River and the water was thick with gizzard/mud shad. I have also been hearing reports of anglers snagging them in the Patapsco River. The shad I caught today were large, averaging 15" in length. Maybe these shad are always prevalent in the rivers and I am just realizing this now.

Are these the shad the stripers are Going to feed on? I realize the mud shad I caught were too large, but are they a species the rockfish will eat?

Or are the stripers looking for juvenile American and Hickory Shad? Can a 45" striper inhale a 10" shad or herring? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to increase my knowledge on the local striper hunt....thanks for your input!

[Yak Fish]

I think that's a good question. I always check the bellies of the fish that I eat to see what they were feeding on for clues. Since I cannot keep fish from this time of year I don't have any data points. In the fall, they do eat small fish, about 4-5" in length. Their bellies are full of them, which is why I use that kind of specific lure then.

I'd fished with a captain years ago on the flats and he would catch herring, full sized, for live lining. He caught them around the docks just before we headed off that morning. These things were the same size as trout you'd catch in the river and bring home to eat. They were big and I remember thinking at the time, no way will we catch anything. I was wrong, they caught big stripers. The herring are slimmer bodied than the mudshad. Definitely I'd believe they'd eat the hickory shad.

[reel-em-in]

Or are the stripers looking for juvenile American and Hickory Shad? Can a 45" striper inhale a 10" shad or herring? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to increase my knowledge on the local striper hunt....thanks for your input!

Jeremy,

A few years ago before the moratorium on herring, I had the opportunity to fish the flats live-lining herring. Sub 30" rockfish with take a 8-10" herring.

[eyedaddy]

Yes they can! A 45 inch Striper can take a 10inch Shad or Herring and not blink an eye. Few years back I had a 41 incher and when we opened it up there was a 12 incher in the stomach. So a 15 inch would not be out of the question for a 45 inch Rock.