The best known fishing grounds for Reeve's shad, which from the Ming dynasty onward was always an item of tribute, were the Qiantang River in Zhejiang, the Xi River in Guangdong, and the Yangtze. But this particular migratory fish does not swim upriver to spawn until the fourth or fifth lunar month.
明朝以來一直作為朝廷貢品的鰣魚，產地以長江、錢塘江、珠江有名，鰣魚也是每年農曆四、五月才由海溯江產卵的「候魚」，聰明的人類常在牠們入江時群起圍捕。