Lehigh River American Shad

The staff from Fisheries Management Area 5 (Bushkill) has completed monitoring of shad passage through the Easton Dam (RM 0.0) fishway for the 2012 spawning migration. Monitoring was discontinued at the Chain Dam (RM 3.0) fishway due to its inability to successfully pass shad. At Easton, surveillance equipment was started 23 March 2012 and terminated 29 June 2012. The early start was due to the unusual warming trend during the spring, which was thought to have jump started shad passage earlier than traditional runs.

A minimum of 2,096 adult American shad passed the Easton Dam fishway in 2012 (Table 1). The passage of the first recorded American shad was on 23 March with shad being recorded through 28 June. Multiple peaks in passage were observed 16 April through 22 April (n = 453 shad), 1 May through 15 May (n = 507 shad), 17 May through 1 June (n = 934 shad), and 8 June through 14 June (Figure 1). Generally passage was very low and sporadic prior to 16 May, with less than 10 individuals observed passing. Throughout May and June, passage of shad occurred daily although no passage of shad was observed 27 March through 13 May. Passage was recorded throughout the 24-hour period with the greatest movement (98.6%, n = 2,067 shad) occurring from 0500 through 2100 hours

CLICK HERE for the complete report: American Shad Passage through the Easton Dam Fishway, Lehigh River

Fishes observed migrating through the Easton (RM 0.0) and Chain (RM 3.0) fishways, 2002-2012. Note monitoring at the Chain fishway in 2004 was terminated in early April due to equipment failure.

Easton Fishway

Species	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
American shad	422	754	675	2023	1397	408	425	1935	558	2096
Herring sp.	0	1	11	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gizzard shad	6	16	21	720	472	192	206	62	4
Striped bass	0	1	3	1	3	2	0	9	4
American eel	-	1	35	20	6	24	1	1	1
Sea lamprey	233	6936	1882	1366	5657	4674	1738	1537	3659
Trout	75	199	313	282	160	129	170	354	205
Muskellunge	2	11	3	2	6	9	8	1	8
Chain pickerel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Walleye	0	1	37	0	7	20	10	13	16
Yellow perch	0	0	1	6	0	0	0	0	0
Bass	221	147	161	1026	398	592	719	349	515
Sunfish/Crappie	77	83	225	893	167	491	513	437	603
Carp	558	437	679	1322	600	640	567	334	249
Quillback	8	24	26	34	28	31	29	37	40
Catfish	122	262	340	830	378	525	573	490	688
Flathead catfish	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	11
Minnows/Fallfish	66	351	258	257	14	15	55	500	32
Sucker	1867	3797	688	2549	9408	6960	3045	2986	2560
Unknown	72	142	123	81	334	58	95	64	123
Total	3729	13162	5471	11392	19029	14770	8154	9109	9276

Chain Fishway

Species	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
American shad	1479	40	-	324	588	215	84	60	169	29
Herring sp.	0	0	-	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Gizzard shad	72	3	-	38	383	188	71	76	24	0
Striped bass	0	0	-	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
American eel	80	5	-	401	30	66	1,923	59	403	606
Sea lamprey	1321	163	-	2346	4194	384	1,318	1,477	3296	5824
Trout	321	106	3	352	124	71	212	194	292	272
Muskellunge	2	2	-	4	6	0	0	1	1	0
	0	0	-	0	0	0	0	-	-	2
Walleye	0	4	-	54	13	3	7	8	3	4
Yellow perch	2	0	-	10	0	0	0	2	1	2
Bass	876	298	-	221	824	140	484	692	444	632
Sunfish/Crappie	850	215	-	605	617	186	502	350	472	511
Carp	244	138	-	266	247	94	220	208	86	76
Quillback	0	0	-	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
Catfish	210	93	-	184	337	193	298	341	271	445
Flathead catfish	0	0	-	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
Minnows/Fallfish	158	84	-	793	245	30	15	62	64	21
Sucker	621	1227	254	1741	1621	1812	862	9,533	3873	4107
Unknown	65	346	-	167	407	336	96	59	80	24
Total	6221	2719	257	7506	9608	3652	6094	13122	9500	12560

Lehigh R. Fisheries Mgmt Plan

Lehigh R. Fish Passage Feasibility Study

Area 5 reports (inc. Lehigh River)

2008 Lehigh River Shad Symposium

Lehigh River summary of fish passages 2008

Biologist reports

Shad Index