In the northern range, females typically release 300,000 eggs or fewer during the spawning season however, most shad will return to spawn again in the following years, with some shad living up to 13 years. In the southern range, females release as many as 700,000 eggs during the spawning season, but both males and females normally die after spawning. Males or "buck shad" return first, followed by females or "roe shad." They typically spawn at night or during overcast days. Upon reaching maturity – usually at about age four – they will return to the streams they were born in to spawn. Juvenile shad leave their natal river within the first year and will spend the next few years at sea, schooling in large numbers with shad from other regions and feeding on plankton and other small fish or crustaceans. Historically, shad and river herring spawned in virtually every river and tributary along the Atlantic coast.
Shad and river herring are anadromous fish that spend the majority of their adult lives at sea, only returning to freshwater in the spring to spawn.
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