Smelt Fishing

[twodogs]

Has there been a smelt run yet this year, or are they a thing of the past?

 

[wildeye rainbow]

There's still around but not in the numbers of the 60's and 70's that I remember. You can still get out and get a feed or two with a little work.

WR

 

[Duck Soup]

I have no idea what this years crop will be like but we still have millions of smelt. The biggest problem is that they no longer run our creeks or spawn on beaches which are easily accessible. Some years thousands die while spawning and places like Bluff Bar are littered with dead and dying smelt. None so far in 2016.

 

[jumbos]

I have no idea what this years crop will be like but we still have millions of smelt. The biggest problem is that they no longer run our creeks or spawn on beaches which are easily accessible. Some years thousands die while spawning and places like Bluff Bar are littered with dead and dying smelt. None so far in 2016.

I wonder why they changed there spawning places?

 

[Duck Soup]

It's been 30 years or more since they switched spawning places and I'm no longer sure that even the experts understood why. It was very strange because it seemed to happen everywhere, not only here on Lake Erie in Long Point Bay. The smelt are now smaller than they used to be. I understand it's a nutrient deficiency issue resulting from the impact of other invasive species like zebra mussels. Occasionally we still catch the odd large smelt perch fishing.

 

[jumbos]

It's been 30 years or more since they switched spawning places and I'm no longer sure that even the experts understood why. It was very strange because it seemed to happen everywhere, not only here on Lake Erie in Long Point Bay. The smelt are now smaller than they used to be. I understand it's a nutrient deficiency issue resulting from the impact of other invasive species like zebra mussels. Occasionally we still catch the odd large smelt perch fishing.

Ya....got a nice pike couple weeks back....stomach was full of small 3-4" smelt and one big 10" smelt. Last smelt I got were off Normandale beach many moons ago...too bad...their tasty burgers.

 

[twodogs]

Thanks for the interesting information. Nature seems to have a way of adapting changes for various reasons. I agree smelts were always a nice spring time treat. I can remember 50 years ago of catching 10 and 12" smelt off the burwell pier. They had teeth like pike and loved minnows. They seem much smaller now.

 

[karpfarmer]

I remember them running up the stream that goes in just west of Burwell, that would have been over 10 years ago now, I was fishing in the evening and nothing, as soon as the sun starting going down they just packed the river, was pretty incredible.

 

[Bucketsoff]

Clearer water due to zebra mussels allowed moonlight to penetrate further allowing the smelt to spawn in deeper water thus negating the need to come shallow.

 

[Bassassin]

Last summer I watched a fishing boat unload many tons of them in Dover. Some big ones too. They netted them in 60 feet of water on the Nanticoke Shoal. I wish I had a big net.