Outdoors
The BDN outdoors section brings readers into the woods, waters and wild places of Maine. It features stories on hunting, fishing, wildlife, conservation and recreation, told by people who live these experiences. This section emphasizes hands-on knowledge, field reports, issues, trends and the traditions that define life outside in Maine. Read more Outdoors stories here.
“Smelts are running!”
For an outdoor forager cooped up all winter, waiting on maple buds, black flies and the return of good fishing, those words are music to the ears.
Although Maine’s freshwater smelt runs aren’t what they once were in many legacy lakes, they’re still around for the dipping if you know where and when to go.
Landlocked rainbow smelt are a primary forage fish for salmon, lake trout or togue, and brook trout. This schooling fish is a critical part of the food chain. Smelt prefer deep, cold water most of the year, but in spring they move into brooks and streams that feed their home waters to spawn.
Look for them immediately after ice-out, when water temperatures hover between 40 and 50 degrees. Fisheries officials say they don’t travel far upstream to lay eggs. In some lakes without key tributaries, they spawn along shorelines.
Smelt feed mostly on plankton and typically grow 3 to 5 inches long. They’re silvery, with strong conical teeth on their jaws and tongue.
There are about 560 Maine waters with natural smelt populations. Well-known waters include Moosehead, Sebago, Schoodic, Branch and Green lakes, along with Rangeley, Mooselookmeguntic, Cupsuptic, Ragged, Parmachenee and Chemquasabamticook — also known as Ross Lake — and the Fish River Chain in Aroostook County.
Due to declining numbers, some of these waters are closed to smelting and listed as S2 in the law book. Where it’s open, legal dipping hours are noon to 2 a.m., and the limit is 2 quarts per person. A fishing license is required, and dip nets may not exceed 24 inches in diameter.
Smelt chasers do best after dark, when the fish make their spawning runs. When conditions are right, it’s something to see. A headlamp beam can reveal hundreds of fish moving upstream in formation, and it doesn’t take long to fill a bucket.
Stick to your legal limit and go easy on popping tops. More than likely, a game warden is watching from the shadows, keeping an eye on things.
At home or back at camp, a smelt fry is a tummy pleaser. I always dip them in egg and cornmeal batter, then pan-fry them until crispy. If you’re lucky enough to fill another bucket with fiddlehead ferns on the way back to the truck, even better. These budding ostrich ferns are the perfect complement.
Oh, one other thing: Save a few smelts for the freezer and use them later as salmon trolling bait.
