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As a state fisheries biologist, Alan Weaver has heard his share of fish stories.
But the one he's telling about hickory shad swimming above the recently breached Embrey Dam is no whopper.
Technicians with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries found them plentiful in a spot about half a mile above the dam during sampling last Friday.
In a boat equipped with an electric shocking device that temporarily stuns fish and brings them to the surface, the two-man crew quickly netted 50 or 60 shad.
Finding shad above the dam "is obviously pretty significant," said Weaver, fish-passage coordinator for the game department. Shad and herring are anadromous fish, spending their adult lives in the ocean but returning to freshwater to spawn.
The main reason for breaching the obsolete dam--and spending $10 million in taxpayers' money to remove it--was to open a fish passage and create upstream spawning grounds. The shad have been blocked from the upper Rappahannock and its tributaries for a century and a half by the 1910 Embrey Dam and a smaller, wooden crib dam built in 1855.
Weekly fish sampling began in early March, about two weeks after a section of Embrey Dam was opened by explosives Feb. 23.
Until last week there was no sign of the fish, which are gathering in increasing numbers in their annual spring spawning run.
"As soon as [the crew] got in the water, they could see them, swarms of fish moving up-stream," Weaver said this week. "It would have been exciting to find one, but they had the live well full on the boat. They could have collected several hundred fish."
A normal river flow for this time of year, combined with relatively clear water, probably helped the fish make it through the dam.
Fisheries technicians Chip Augustine and Andrew Skelton maneuvered their boat to a point about halfway between the dam and the Interstate 95 bridge. One steered and operated the shocking probe, while the other netted the stunned fish. They released the fish after counting them.
For years, state game biologists have been sampling the migratory fish populations below the dam. It was a good spot because it was the end of the line for the fish.
Hickory shad have been plentiful in recent years in the Rappahannock, but their larger cousin, American shad, have been rare. American shad populations were so low that their harvest was banned in 1994.
The law requires that any hickory or American shad caught above Falmouth Bridge on U.S. 1 be released. Fishing and boating are banned in the immediate vicinity of the dam because it is a demolition zone.
American shad have made a comeback on other Chesapeake Bay tributaries, particularly the James River.
Last year, in anticipation of the dam breach, young American shad were stocked miles upriver at Kelly's Ford in Culpeper County. Stocking will be done again this spring in hopes that those fish will return there to spawn in four to five years.
Herring and striped bass also congregate in the river below Embrey Dam. Weaver said some of them will venture upstream, but they tend to stay in the tidal area below the fall line.
White perch and shad typically arrive in the river in mid-March, followed by herring and striped bass.
Weaver said another sample was to have been taken this week farther upriver, near the I-95 bridge, but high water from the recent rains made that impossible.
The sampling will continue into late May, when the fish finish spawning and head downriver into the bay.
Scientists want to know how far upriver the fish are going. Historically, they've been reported up to 45 miles above the dam.
"We just want to find as much information as we can in this first year and to find some sites [for sampling] in future years," Weaver said. "It's all kind of new territory for us."
He said most of the shad caught last Friday were males. There were a few females ripe with eggs, which also is noteworthy.
"They are seeking out this habitat to use it to spawn," he said.
State and federal officials exulted over last week's discovery.
Bill Woodfin, director of the game department, said he was gratified "to see this fish-passage work succeed so solidly."
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a longtime advocate of removing the dam, issued a news release calling the sightings "an exciting and strong testament to the benefits of breaching the dam."
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com