cought a shad i think

paulthespark

Well-known member
fished middleton pier sunday morning, on float ,hoping to get a few macky nothing doing, then after about 2 hours of futile fishing my float shot under i knew it was,t a macky the fight from it was different not as fast and furious, but still a good fight all he same . anyway after i landed it, it was about the same size as a good macky, silvery mother of pear underbelly and a light greeny brown back with a powerful tuna like tail this old man told me it is a shad and that i have to return it to the sea or i could face a 200pound fine but as the fish took my 2 / 0 hook and the macky belly right down i had to kill it wich i did,t want to .
three questions 1 what family is the shad from
2are they rare
3can you really get a 200pound fine for keeping them
cheers:red:
 
The shad is very rare however I think it's unlikely to be a shad, may have been a scad or 'horse mackerel'. The shad don't really have tuna like fins however the scad do.
This pic isn't the best but it does highlight what I mean about their fins.
scadblowup.jpg


As for a £200 fine???:D
 
My mate caught an Allis Shad from South Shields pier on Friday night, around 2lb in weight (44cms), it took a spinner whilst jigging for launce.

1.jpg


We returned it but unfortunately it did not survive, another was caught about an hour later.

It is unlawful to deliberately fish for both species of Shad.
 
Yep, I had a Twaite Shad from Blyth about 10yrs ago, mis-identified it as a herring (even the tackle shop got it wrong when I had it weighed thinking I'd caught a record fish!), had to send it off to the natural history museum for identification, felt like crap when I found out it was a shad and a protected species.
 
Bit google -
The twaite shad and allis shad occur along the Atlantic coast of Europe from southern Scandinavia to the Iberian Peninsula and in the Baltic and the Mediterranean. Populations have suffered a severe decline over its distribution range. Whilst adults occur in small numbers around the UK coast there is only evidence of spawning stocks in a few of the UK's rivers, these being notably the rivers Severn, Wye, Usk and the Solway.
Both the allis and twaite shad are listed on Appendix III of the Bern Convention and Annexes II and V of the EC Habitats Directive. Both species are also included in Section 9(4)(a) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981), (amended April 1998), which makes it an offence to intentionally obstruct access to spawning areas, or to damage or destroy gravels used for spawning. The allis and twaite shad also continue to be protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) in respect of section 9(1) so it is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or take specimens.

Action plan for Alosa alosa
Action plan for Alosa fallax
 
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