The Return of the American Shad: The Fish That Built the East Coast Is Fighting Its Way Home
- The Fly Box LLC
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
For centuries, long before trout streams were romanticized and before bass tournaments dominated television, one fish quietly powered the economy and culture of the eastern United States. That fish was the American shad.
At one time the seasonal migration of shad into American rivers was so enormous that early settlers claimed the water turned silver with fish. Rivers like the Delaware River, the Susquehanna River, and the Connecticut River supported commercial fisheries that fed entire cities. Entire communities organized their spring around the arrival of the shad run. Today, after decades of decline, something remarkable is beginning to happen. The American shad is slowly making its return.
