GLENDO/MOORCROFT – In May, 340 adult gizzard shad were transplanted from Nebraska to Wyoming’s Glendo and Keyhole reservoirs to give walleye more to eat. Since August, there’s proof walleye are already taking advantage of the young fish and that the transplants successfully spawned.
Netting at Glendo this summer showed young-of-the-year gizzard shad – both free-swimming and ingested by walleye. Gordon Edwards, the reservoir’s biologist, and his cohorts also observed several “bait balls” or schools of young gizzard shad.
“We also had several credible reports from anglers spotting gizzard shad bait balls and finding shad in their walleye, too,” Edwards said.
Andrew Nikirk also observed gizzard shad schools a little larger than a pickup truck at Keyhole Reservoir Aug. 10-12. That includes one mixed with infant perch, crappie and bluegill. From the mere 70 adult gizzard shad stocked there May 15, the Keyhole biologist found young shad all over the reservoir, including one net full of more than 100 3.5-to-6-inch youngsters.
“We hoped to find a few juvenile gizzard shad,” said Nikirk, “but the results were really a pleasant surprise. It appears to be a good spawning season for many species, including yellow perch.”
Game and Fish received additional reports of Glendo Reservoir anglers catching walleye with little gizzard shad in their gullets in September.
In addition to Keyhole and Glendo, gizzard shad are important prey for walleye and other game fish in Grayrocks, Wheatland No. 1 and Hawk Springs reservoirs.
Keyhole and Glendo had been without gizzard shad since the prolonged ice cover of the 2012-13 winter. So Edwards and Nikirk traveled to Nebraska in May to help Nebraska fish biologists collect the fish to transplant back to the Cowboy State. The team hoped to collect around 1,500 adults, but colder-than-typical water reduced the haul to 310.
As their predecessors have since 1978, Edwards and Nikirk hope to return to Nebraska again in May 2016 to bring more gizzard shad back to enhance Wyoming walleye fishing.