For the Love of Shad

A Connecticut community celebrates a migratory fish

Jeff Butterfield, 52, maneuvers his boat into his favorite fishing spot under the Dexter Coffin Bridge north of Windsor, Conn. (pop. 28,658), drops the anchor into the Connecticut River and casts two lines off the back of the boat, hoping to catch a prize-winning shad.

Between April 1 and June 15, a fisherman can catch up to 25 shad an hour as the fish return from the ocean to spawn. Some of the silvery fish are caught during the Shad Masters tournament, held in Windsor each spring since 1954.

"I dream about the tournament all winter," says Butterfield, who has participated every year since he was 13 and won first place last year with a 4-pound, 15-ounce fish.

Located at the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers, Windsor-which was founded in 1633 and claims to be the oldest town in Connecticut-has a long and enduring relationship with the American shad. The fish provided early settlers with food, fertilizer for their crops and income as townspeople took advantage of what was once the largest shad run in New England.

"Shad remain faithful to Connecticut, returning every spring despite all we've done to hinder them with dams, pollution and fish ladders," said the late state Rep. Faith McMahon, of nearby Bloomfield, who in 2003 introduced the bill designating shad as the official state fish.

Members of the Windsor Rod and Gun Club founded the Shad Derby 55 years ago to celebrate the fish and to promote cleanup of the Connecticut River. Originally the fishing contest ran for a month and produced thousands of shad weighing 7 to 8 pounds, says Ed Kostyk, 84, a founder of the derby, now known as the Shad Masters tournament.

While shad populations have declined all along the Eastern seaboard in recent years, the people of Windsor continue to celebrate the fish during the Shad Derby Festival. The communitywide event each May features a parade, Shad Queen pageant, 5K road race, arts & crafts festivals, and, of course, the Shad Masters tournament. "Shad, friends and family return year after year," says Kerry G. Ruiz, 48, a festival co-chair.

During the fishing tournament the first weekend in May, anglers in boats and on the banks of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers try to entice shad with shiny and colorful lures. "The fish see the lure flashing through the water," says Fred King, co-chairman of the tournament for the last 10 years. "Because shad don't eat on their way to spawn, some people say they strike in irritation, others say it's instinct."

American shad, the largest in the herring family, are prized for their roe and meat, though their elaborate skeletal structure requires a skilled hand to remove more than 800 bones from a single fish. Connecticut fishermen are limited to six shad daily, and most participants in the Shad Masters tournament release smaller fish in hopes of hooking a larger one.

"Last year, it came down to one fish," recalls Butterfield, a Windsor native who now lives in Marlborough, Conn. "I knew it was a male because it gave me such a fight and did a spectacular aerial leap and flip."

The fish took first place in the Shad Masters tournament, and Butterfield won $300 and bragging rights in a longstanding Windsor tradition.

The 55th Shad Masters tournament is scheduled May 1-3. For more information, visit www.windsorshadderby.org.

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