THE SMELT. 277 



THE SMELT. 



The SMELT (Osmerus eperlanus), Sparling in Scotland, is 

 not often an angler's capture, although Dr. Day states they 

 may be caught with a paternoster line, with No. 8 or 9 

 hooks baited with shrimps or gentles, red worms, &c. 

 Salter, in his " Angler's Guide," says he has caught very 

 fine smelts by angling in Portsmouth Harbour, but Yarrell 

 has no doubt that these fish were the sand-smelt or 

 atherine, one of the Mugilidce (mullets). The smelts are 

 usually caught in nets in the estuaries of rivers, Medway 

 smelts being famous. They are very plentiful along the 

 east coast. They enter the rivers in August for spawning 

 purposes, and return to the sea in May. The fish has 

 a very peculiar cucumber odour when fresh taken. Smelts 

 have been bred in fresh water having no communication 

 with the sea, and have thriven well, propagating abundantly. 

 It spawns in March. The smelt is found in the Tay, the 

 Forth, the Ure, the Humber, the Thames, and the Medway, 

 on the east coast ; on the west, in the Solway Firth, and 

 as far south as the parallel line formed by the Mersey, the 

 Dee, the Conway, and Dublin Bay. Yarrell states that it 

 is not found between Dover and the Land's End. 



In Salter's day (" Angler's Guide," 1814) smelts were 

 comparatively common in the Thames, although the numbers 

 had greatly fallen off. He says : " They arrive twice a 

 year in the Thames March and July but do not go above 

 London Bridge in their last visit. The most favourite 

 resort for taking these fish in nets was between London 

 Bridge and Lambeth. The river formerly swarmed with 

 this delicious fish. In July we used to begin angling for 

 smelts in the various wet-docks below bridge, but the spot 

 covered by the floating timber at Limehouse Hole was a 

 favourite resort of the smelt-fishers. A hundred dozen 

 have frequently been taken in a day. I have made much 

 inquiry on the subject of smelts not visiting as usual the 

 River Thames, but without any satisfactory results." 



Captain T. Williamson (" The Complete Angler's Vade- 



