Kiacks on the Medway

The Medway River is one of many Maritime waterways known for its prolific run of kiacks. In other places, they are referred to as gaspereau, alewife, or Alosa pseudoharengus, but, here on the Medway, people call them by their aboriginal Mi'kmaq name - kiack. They are still fished commercially with long-handled dip nets at specific berths along the river, and anyone with an angling license can bag up to 20 per day - if you can catch them!

Born in freshwater, the mature kiack is a 10"-12'' fish resembling a herring or small shad. It takes 4-5 years feeding at sea to reach sexual maturity, then the kiack returns to the river of its birth to spawn. Eggs are deposited in freshwater from May to July, and develop quickly over the summer. From late August to October, 2"-3" silvery juveniles can be seen in great numbers on their journey to the sea. One interesting thing about kiacks is that they do not usually die after spawning. Individuals are known to live as long as 10 years and biologists estimate that up to 75% of each year's run are repeat spawners.

Kiacks are fun to catch on a light fly rod. They are powerful swimmers and put up a good fight when hooked, but it is rather difficult to catch them. You will find kiacks by carefully observing the surface water. Kiacks travel in schools - sometimes by the hundreds or thousands of fish, and they can make quite a commotion in still water. At times you will see individual fish, or several fish at once, smacking the water. At other times you will notice turbulence - especially subtle waves advancing upstream against the current flow.

Like shad, these fish are here for one reason - to spawn. They spend their time chasing each other around and around in circles, and seem unconcerned with feeding. I have occasionally caught them on #6 and #8 salmon flies using a floating line. My best success was with a wet salmon fly called the McKinnon Special. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has caught kiacks with an artificial fly - either by design, or incidentally, in the pursuit of other species.

PS: Check out this video of kiacks in freshwater. Is it my imagination, or do some of them appear to be feeding on something - could it be plankton? Maybe that's why they have those "googly eyes". I don't think I have any flies quite that small...

Good Luck and Good Fishin!

RP

Photo by Random Phrump: Kiacks in a blue pail.