FISHES OF VERMONT. 595 



smelt 14 inches in length. This was in July. I was running- a good-sized dace 150 

 feet helow the surface, using 1A pounds lead. Also in August, while trolling, I 

 caught a one-half pound smelt in the middle of the lake opposite Wesfcporfc, where 

 I was running a minnow 200 feet helow the surface. When camping in August at 

 Apple Tree Point, a little north of Diamond Island, I used to go out hefore sunrise 

 to fish for wall-eyed pike in about 100 feet of water. Very often the pike would 

 chase and drive schools of smelt to the surface. They would leap out of the water 

 by hundreds; they were fair-sized smelt. 



"In September I was fishing on a reef far out in the lake opposite Westport. This 

 reef has 18 feet of water on it, breaking off suddenly to 200 feet. A strong current 

 was running from the deep water over the reef. Pike were biting finely. Once in 

 a while the water would fairly boil close around the boat, caused by the smelt com- 

 ing to the surface, driven up by large fish. Some of the pike threw smelt from their 

 mouths after they were in the boat. Game Protector Goper Liberty was with me at 

 the time. Once while anchored on this reef in a still time, with the current running 

 as before, suddenly I noticed great quantities of air bubbles rising to the surface all 

 over the reef. This was a mystery, but it was soon solved by the appearance of 

 thousands of smelt leaping from the water, apparently disabled and in trouble. It 

 seems that the current brought them up from deep water and the diminished pressure 

 expanded their air bladders to such a degree that it brought them to the surface in 

 distress, notwithstanding that they expelled part of the air before they broke water. 



'■I have taken fair-sized smelt from the mouths and throats of Avail-eyed pike all 

 through the summer and fall months — this was when fishing in aud near very deep 

 water — and have frequently used smelt so taken for bait with good success. My 

 friend, Samuel P. Avery, jr., tells me that he picked up a dead smelt on the shore of 

 his island at Button Bay. He went out on his favorite reef, aud Avith this single 

 smelt caught five fine wall-eyes. Smelt are the natural food of wall-eyes in Cham- 

 plain and make the best of bait. I have never found smelt in black bass taken in 

 Lake Champlain. Sometimes smelt come to the surface toward night, and in cloudy 

 weather, when the lake is still, observing persons can see them swimming about in 

 large schools, making a wide and curious ripple on the water. This is generally 

 seen at the middle of the lake, where the water is the deepest. Smelt can he caught 

 in Lake Champlain in any of the summer months by going to the right place and 

 using the right means, but I do not think to much advantage, as they lie in deep 

 water and are more scattered than in winter; still, by a little effort enough can be 

 caught to use for bait. 



"Here I want to raise a note of warning to those that think of introducing smelt 

 to feed lake trout. They are ferocious little brutes and persistent destroyers of small 

 fish living in all depths of water; they would destroy the young trout. This I think 

 is one reason lake trout are not more plenty in Champlain.'' 



In another issue of Forext and Stream Mr. Cheney gives still further information 

 upon this subject. He says : 



"In Forest and Stream of March 28 I wrote of the smelts, or, as they are called 

 locally, 'ice-fish,' of Lake Champlain, and said that I believed that they were not 

 permanent residents of the lake, 'as they are caught only through the ice in Febru- 

 ary and March, and a search for them by the anglers in the summer and fall months 

 has proved fruitless.' My friend, Mr. Roland F. Robinson, has written me a letter 

 upon this subject, from which I quote: 



'Hon. M. F. Allen, of that place (Ferrisburg, Vt.), told me a few years ago of 

 catching pike-perch off Split Rock, in Lake Champlain, that were gorged with 

 smelt. I do not recall the date, but it could not have been earlier than the middle 

 of June, and may have been in July or August. Mr. Allen is an old angler, well 

 acquainted with the varieties offish common in our waters, and could not have been 

 mistaken in the identity of the smelt. I well remember seeing an occasional speci- 

 men among the great hauls of other fish taken in the old days of unrestricted 

 seining on the then famous fishing-ground at the mouth of Lewis Creek, the Sungah- 

 ncetook, or Fishing "Weir River of the "Waubanakees. These facts go to show that 

 the smelt remain in the lake during at least part of the summer.' 



