A freshly landed sea smelt
The Anglers' Society got out over the weekend at Leighton's Smelt Camps in Dresden chasing sea smelts. "Smelting", as most fishermen refer to it, is a winter tradition in Maine. There are a handful of commercial smelt camps in the vicinity of Merrymeeting Bay where one can rent a shack for a six hour tide in hopes of catching smelts. Lines are usually hung from the ceiling baited with cut sand worms and fish are hand lined in when a sign of a bite is detected. When the fishing is good, it can be hard to keep all of the lines in the water.
Tyler, Amelia, Sierra, and Destiny briefly took their eyes off the lines for a photo.
The smelts we were chasing are the same species found statewide. However, these "sea smelts" spend part of their lives in a saltwater estuary feeding and growing to a larger average size before running back up river to tributary streams for their spring spawn. Their natural migration from a natal freshwater river to the ocean and back again makes them Anadromous. We have many native anadromous species in Maine including but not limited to atlantic salmon, striped bass, alewives, lampreys, Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon. Sea smelts spend the winter under the ice of frozen tidal rivers awaiting their spring spawning runs into smaller tributary streams. Mainers have utilized this food source for generations dating back to the Native Americans.
Jake with his first smelt
We fried up and ate some smelts on Saturday and kept some for bait on upcoming outings. We even brought three home alive as the newest addition to Mr. Bryant's touch tank in the Marine Biology classroom. They have adjusted well to the tank and serve as great ambassadors to an often overlooked migratory fish species found in nearly all of Maine's tidal rivers.
The newest additions to the T.A. touch tank
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