American Shad Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Deep, strongly laterally compressed body, much taller relative to length than most other river herrings
• A single large dark spot just behind the gill cover, usually followed by a row of several smaller, fainter spots trailing back along the side
• Deeply forked tail fin and a sharp-edged row of scutes along the belly
• Bluish-green to steel-blue back shading to bright silver sides, with large, easily shed scales
• Largest of the North American shads and herrings, commonly reaching 45-60 cm

Common look-alikes

• Alewife — much smaller, deeper eye relative to snout, and shows only a single shoulder spot without a trailing row of smaller spots
• Blueback herring — smaller body, darker blue-black back, and typically only one faint shoulder spot
• Atlantic menhaden — deeper still with a proportionally larger head and more strongly serrated scutes

Where you'll see one

American shad are anadromous, living in coastal Atlantic waters of North America as adults and returning each spring to spawn in freshwater rivers from the Canadian Maritimes south to Florida, often migrating far upstream over gravel shoals.