Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 8 : Spring 2011 | Page 22

Smelt Enforcement
Story by Eric Rudolph

Photos by Maine Warden Service

It is a scene played out countless times over the course
of the spring. The setting is a clear moonlit night along a small
brook anywhere in the state. Snow and ice can still be found
on the banks and the stream is engorged by spring run-off.
There is hardly any room for the water to pass in the little
brook because it is filled from bank to bank with a whirling
black mass of smelts. In the dim light, two men walk along
the stream. Using dip nets they make one pass and fill the net
to capacity. Emptying the net, they take another swipe filling
it yet again. They cannot believe their luck. Looking over
their shoulders, they are tempted. They are alone, not another
fishermen in sight. Each has their limit of two quarts. Quickly,
they return to fishing overcome by greed. The pair is not as
secluded as they think. From the tangle of alders emerges a
shadowy green figure. A flashlight beam cuts the darkness and
a voice shatters the quiet lapping of the brook, “Game Warden,
hold it right there . . .”

The dipping of smelts in the springtime is a popular
pastime among many of Maine’s sportsmen. The small baitfish
start returning to tributary streams in early spring to spawn
based on combination of several factors. Photoperiod, water
temperature, and flow rate all signal the silvery forage fish to
depart from their usual lake or pond habitat to their spawning
areas in mass. The sport of smelt fishing is heavily regulated
because of the important role the forage fish plays in the
20 Smelt Enforcement SPRING 2011

success of Maine’s coldwater game fish. Several tributaries
across the state are closed to the taking of smelts. The net used
to dip smelt must contain a rigid circular frame that is not more
than 24 inches in diameter measured from any point on the
hoop and must be manually operated by one person holding
a valid Maine fishing license. A person may take two quarts
of smelts as part of their daily bag limit. Smelts may also be
kept alive to be used as bait. Maine state law clearly states: “A
person may not keep more than five dozen smelts alive as part
of that person’s daily bag limit [2 quarts].”

Smelts are the primary forage of one of Maine’s
signature game fish, landlocked salmon. They are also on
the menu for several other game fish. Because smelts are so
concentrated in small pockets in the early spring, they are very
susceptible to both legal and illegal fishing pressure. A single
fisherman, in one night, could decimate a population of smelts
in a tributary by taking over the limit. On a good night, quarts
can quickly become gallons as temptation strikes.

People taking over the limit are not the only sportsmen
that can have an effect on smelt populations. Even the most
law-abiding sportsmen could be affecting smelts without even
thinking. As smelts swim into tributary streams the females
run first, depositing their eggs on the stream bottom to be
fertilized. In some brooks, this coating of eggs can be very
thick. Fishermen wading into the stream to legally dip smelts