The dead/dying fish are all shad. I did an interview for NewsChannel 9. In my humble opinion (and as noted above), in high water the threadfins ran up out of the river, probably into warmer runoff water from rains. Then water levels dropped and they got stranded. That was definitely the case in the place I took these pictures. The dead shad being found are a miniscule drop in the bucket of what's out there.
There are people in the area who STRONGLY disagree. They believe the city has sprayed something that killed the fish. I just took a phone call from one very irate lady who saw me on TV and tracked me down to express her strong objections to what I had to say. emoBigsmile I talked her down and we parted amiably.... just agreeing to disagree.
Fishermen know that threadfin shad don't belong and can't survive in this kind of skinny water. These fish just simply went where they shouldn't have ought to gone during high water... and failed to escape back to the river when their water went away. I think it's a fish version of the Darwin Theory. emoSmile