Smelts are running
By V. Paul Reynolds
“Smelts are running!”
To an outdoor forager, who has been cooped up all winter and awaiting the maples buds and black flies and all the good fishing that follows, this exaltation can be music to the ears. Although Maine’s freshwater smelt runs are not what they used to be in many legacy smelt lakes, they are still around for the dipping, if you know where and when to go.
The landlocked Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus mordax) is a primary forage fish for our favorite game fish, salmon, lake trout (togue) and brook trout. This makes this schooling little fish a critical component of our game fish food chain. Smelts like deep cold water except in spring, when they start their spawning runs up brooks and streams that feed their home waters.
Look for them immediately after ice out, when water temperatures hover between 40 and 50 degrees. Fisheries folks tell us that they don’t go that far upstream to lay their eggs. In some lakes without key tributaries, they simply spawn along the shorelines. The smelt, which feeds mostly on plankton, is 3 to 5 inches long and silvery with strong conical teeth on jaws and tongue.
There are about 560 Maine waters that have natural populations of smelts. The most well-known smelt waters are Moosehead Lake, Sebago Lake, Schoodic Lake, Branch Lake, Green Lake ,Rangely Lake, Mooselookmeguntic, Cupsuptic Lake, Ragged Lake, Parmachenee Lake, Chemquasabamticook Lake (Ross) and the Fish River Chain in Aroostook County.
Unfortunately, due to declines of smelt numbers, a number of these waters are closed to smelting (S2 in the law book). On the waters that are open to smelting, the legal dipping hours are noon to 2 a.m. and the limit per person is 2 quarts. You must have a fishing license and your dip net can not exceed 24 inches in diameter.
Smelt chasers do best after dark when smelts prefer to make the spawning run. When it’s right, a smelt run is a thing to behold. And when it happens, when your headlamp reveals hundreds of smelt all heading upstream in formation, it is exciting! And it doesn’t take long to fill your bucket with two quarters of smelts.
Suggestion: Stick to your legal limit and go easy on popping tops. More than likely, there will be a game warden beyond you in the shadows keeping any eye on things.
At home or back at camp, a smelt fry is a tummy pleaser. I always dipped them in an egg and corn meal batter and then pan fried them crispy. If you were lucky enough to fill your other bucket with some fiddlehead ferns on the way back to the truck, all the better! These budding Ostrich Ferns are the perfect complement to a smelt fry.
Oh, one other thing. Save out a few smelt for the freezer, and use them for salmon trolling bait.
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.