We have a run in the St John river that is just about to end, I don't eat the roe, but quite a few folks do down here. We have a Shad Derby down here, but I think it is all about catch , photograph and release. I was told that we don't get the real large ones this far south, and we get Hickory shad mixed in with the American shad, or so I have been told, but do not know how to tell the difference. The one in the pic is one of the larger ones we caught, and I think that a 19" fish is leading the fly rod division.