Wyoming Game and Fish Department

CASPER ANGLER REELS IN SECOND STATE RECORD FISH

CASPER - It's not every day an angler sets two state records in one year. But that's exactly what Casper resident Tom Durst did on Nov. 15 when he caught a 1.06-pound gizzard shad in Glendo Reservoir. The 14.25-inch fish had a girth measurement of 9.5 inches. Durst also made fishing headlines on January 7 of this year when he reeled in a 7.5 pound, 26.5-inch sauger from Boysen Reservoir. The fish broke the old state record that had stood since 1999.

Gizzard shad are most often found in large schools and have earned the nickname "skipjack" from the fact that individuals within a school may often be observed leaping out of the water or "skipping" along the surface on their sides.

"I've often seen something silver jumping out of the water at Glendo, I just didn't realize it was gizzard shad," Durst said.

The Game and Fish stocks gizzard shad in Glendo to provide a food source for walleye. Gizzard shad are planktivorous. Young feed on microscopic animals and plants, as well as small insect larvae. Adults feed by filtering small food items from the water using their long, close-set gill rakers. They rarely bite on a hook, and when they do, they are generally considered worthless as a food fish.

The species is often used as cut bait for other fish species. Durst said he plans to use the record fish as bait to go after catfish.

It was 14 degrees when Durst launched his boat at 7:30 a.m. that November morning. He was fishing at a depth of 15 feet using jigs laced with a worm. He flipped a line out on a dead-rod then began to try his luck fishing with spoons on a second rod.

"He bit the dead rod," Durst said. "It was the biggest gizzard shad I had ever seen in Wyoming."

He elected to keep the fish and when he returned home he checked the Game and Fish web page to see if there was a state record listed for the species. When he discovered there wasn't, he brought the fish into the Casper office to have a biologist look at it and, hopefully, to fill out his second state record application of the year.

Durst hopes someone will try to beat the record and help bring recognition to the gizzard shad as more than a garbage fish. "This species is important to our walleye," he said. "Without these fish Glendo wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. Walleyes in Glendo are butterballs, and it's all lard from eating shad."

 (Contact: Robin Kepple, (307) 473-3409)

-WGFD-