Every year we catch and release thousands of hickory shad, they are a crucial species for how me and the guides in my operation make a living. These fish have stream fidelity, they come back to the stream they were born. We have nearly eliminated the population of American shad from the James River, we cannot afford to lose another species to overharvesting. Ideally, keeping male fish only is an option I would favor as females are full of roe and killing one is the equivalent of killing hundreds if not thousands. Another option is setting a strict creel limit of 5 per day and prohibiting commercial fishing of which I have seen an increase in the past few years, all keeping females.