New Record Gizzard Shad CASPER - The fall months appear to be the time to catch a new Wyoming fish record as long as the water you are fishing is Glendo Reservoir and the species is the gizzard shad.

The latest shad record is due to the efforts of Casper area angler Justin Howard. Howard was fishing Glendo Reservoir this past September and was having great fishing for walleye when the record shad took his small crankbait. He had caught gizzard shad before and on boating the fish thought it had a chance at qualifying as the new state record. Subsequent weighing on a certified scale proved his hunch right.

Howard's fish weighed in at 2.65 pounds easily besting the two pounder - also caught out of Glendo - in in the fall of 2012. Howard's fish was 18-inches long with a girth of 13 inches. The previous record was 17-inches in length with an 11.5-inch girth.

When gizzard shad are small, they serve as an excellent forage fish and they have been stocked in Glendo periodically to provide an additional food supply, primarily for the walleye in the reservoir.

The world record gizzard shad weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces and was caught in 2006 out of Lake Oahe in South Dakota.

To qualify for a new fish record, anglers need to get the fish weighed on a certified scale and have it verified by the Game and Fish Department. A listing of state record fish is on the Game and Fish website.