SMELT FAMILY (Osmeridac) 



American Smelt 



Osinerus inordax (Mitchill) 



Robert S. Rupp 

 Regional Fishery Biologist 



The American Smelt is an elongate, slender fish characterized by 

 its soft-rayed fins; its rayless, median, adipose fin; its large, deciduous, 

 cycloid scales; and its large head with well-developed jaws and canine 

 teeth. Color is transparent olive-green above grading to silvery on the 

 sides. There are numerous very fine dark spots on sides and fins. Young 

 specimens, those less than approximately two inches long, are often 

 entirely transparent. 



Range of the smelt extends along the Atlantic Coast from Labrador 

 and Gulf of St. Lawrence to New York. Landlocked populations are 

 found in lakes of Maine, New Hampshire, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 

 Quebec, and New York. From early introductions into lakes of the 

 lower peninsula of Michigan, the smelt gained access to the Great Lakes 

 and has now spread throughout the waters of that region. Anadromous 

 smelt inhabiting coastal waters and the freshwater, landlocked smelt of 

 inland lakes are considered one and the same species. 



Usual summer habitat of freshwater smelt consists of the clear, cool 

 waters found in the deeper portions of our deep, cold (oligotrophic) 

 lakes. All available evidence indicates that smelts travel about the depths 

 of these lakes associated in compact groups or schools. These schools 

 usually confine themselves to the deep water in summer but wander all 

 over the lakes during winter, often being seen through holes in the ice. 

 Some wandering takes place during summer also since they are oc- 

 casionally seen schooling at the surface on calm summer evenings. 



Until recent years "normal" habitat of the freshwater smelt was 

 thought to consist solely of stratified, coldwater lakes. Recent findings 

 of the Maine Lake Survey have shown that this is not correct; smelt are 

 quite often found in many of our small, unstratified, warmwater ponds 

 which are inhabited mainly by warmwater species. There is no reason 

 for considering that this is not a "normal" situation. 



Food of the smelt is varied depending on size. Small individuals 

 feed mainly on plankton and entomostraca, with insects making up a 

 large part of the latter. Larger individuals feed more on young fishes 

 and larger insects. It is said that young smelts make up the bulk of the 

 diet of smelts over 8 or 10 inches long. Freshwater smelts may attain 

 a length of 14 inches and a weight of half-a-pound and, at this size, the 

 diet is almost entirely fish. 



Spawning usually takes place in tributary streams at night just be- 

 fore, during, and just after the break-up of ice. Exceptions to this occur, 

 however. In one lake in Maine the run begins in late February and takes 

 place under heavy ice cover on both lake and brook. In several places 

 the run, and presumably spawning also, take place in daytime as well as 



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