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<br />shad to "ball up" in a tight school when predators approach <br />allows striped bass to herd and trap shad schools. The trapped <br />shad school is repeatedly probed by striped bass working together <br />to eat, injure and kill as many shad as possible. Shad are often <br />slashed by the jaws and stunned by the powerful caudal fin during <br />such encounters. striped bass capture most shad at the surface <br />creating a highly visible disturbance with water spouts and a <br />boat wake-like wave as stripers line up shoulder to shoulder to <br />feed. When the attack commences the surface activity is intense <br />and visible for many hundred meters as water is thrown high in <br />the air. Surface feeding boils last from a few seconds to as <br />long as three hours. Duration is probably determined by shad <br />abundance. Many shad allow a longer feeding period while few <br />shad may be consumed or lost from sight in a few seconds. <br />Surface boils only occur when shad are present. In years <br />when shad numbers are limited and eventually eliminated from the <br />open water, no striper boils are seen. When shad are abundant <br />boils are common and predictable. Striped bass often feed at the <br />same time in the same location on a daily basis. Striped bass <br />habitually return to a successful feeding spot every day until <br />the forage is consumed or escapes. <br />Both shad and stripers are tightly bunched as they begin the <br />daily feeding ritual. Normally, about one-half hour after first <br />light shad form schools after spending the night randomly <br />distributed in the water column. This shad schooling behavior <br />attracts striped bass and feeding begins. As shad schools are <br />repeatedly attacked, large schools fragment into smaller groups. <br />Fragmentation of shad schools also causes striped bass schools to <br />break up as groups of striped bass chase after small groups of <br />shad. An original feeding event, one-hectare in size, can <br />dissolve into scattered striped bass feeding in many different <br />directions over a square kilometer. When feeding ceases both <br />shad and striped bass regroup. <br />If striped bass are satiated they may not eat for the rest <br />of the day. More likely they will randomly feed again near mid- <br /> <br />17 <br />