248 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
“Grtf” (1900) wrote: 
The Massachusetts law allows the smelt to be caught with only hook and line, and no seining 
is permitted. It also makes a close season during the spawning time, and on account of this law, 
the fish have increased in number and in size. 
The Fishing Gazette (New York) for March 16, 1907 (p. 259) contained the 
following: 
It is safe to say that the ice smelt fishery in Essex River, which was closed down Thursday last 
until June 1st, will be an established pursuit at Essex next winter, says a Gloucester exchange 
The strike of Warden Nixon, of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Commission, has fairly set the 
fishermen of the town into a state of excitement. Ever since the day when the warden located 
the fish, the river in the locality of the strike has been fairly alive with men and boys, all fishing 
Some of them fished all day and many fished well into the night, by lantern light. The smelt were 
an extra big run and fully half of them are by far the largest ever taken in this vicinity, easily 
running from 10 to 13 inches in length. 
In 1908 the total catch was 16,200 pounds, valued at $2,500, principally in Essex 
and Suffolk Counties, of which 3,200 pounds were taken by seines and 13,000 by 
lines. The following is quoted from the report of the commissioners on fisheries and 
game of Massachusetts for 1916: 
The smelt fishery in Massachusetts is in a depleted condition, and strenuous and radical measures 
will be required to save this species from extinction. The only available natural breeding grounds 
of importance are the Weymouth Back and Fore rivers, particularly the former. To thislocality each 
year thousands of smelt resort for spawning. Unless steps are soon taken to prevent it, even this 
last breeding ground will soon be past history because of the depredations of man. 
Plans are now under consideration toward protecting this locality as a reservation where a 
station can be established for obtaining the smelt eggs, the majority of which would otherwise 
perish, and from which the collected eggs could be distributed for restocking other coastal streams, 
possessing suitable spawning grounds. Only by this means can the smelt fisheries of our coast be 
maintained and replenished. • 
The report of these commissioners for 1917 (p. 76) says: 
The smelt fishery of Massachusetts, while never achieving a commercial importance like that 
of the New Brunswick fishery (an important winter fishery, carried on through the ice, and the 
product shipped frozen to market), is now of value to the recreational fishermen, and does rep- 
resent a substantial food supply. The commercial possibilities should be the primary reason for 
its development, for conditions can be made favorable to restoring the once abundant supply. 
The reappearance of smelts in localities that they had not frequented for years 
was attributed to previous stocking. The annual report of the Massachusetts 
commissioners for 1918 (p. 148) said: 
It was reported to one of our men on January 29 of this year that large quantities of smelt 
were being taken from Bournes Wharf River, in the Duxbury Marshes, in the part called Captain 
Simmons Turn. Fifty pounds were taken in one day by one man. This, our deputy reports, is an 
unusual circumstance, since in forty years of acquaintance with the river he never knew smelt to 
be so plentiful or present at that season. This is doubtless attributable to the informal stocking a 
few years ago by deputies of the department, who, in passing to their work, were in the habit of 
filling baskets with eyed spawn at the Weir or Weymouth Rivers, and depositing it in the rivers 
where smelts were formerly found, but which had since become depleted. 
Results have also been apparent in the Jones River, Kingston, where the fishery was badly 
depleted. In 1916-17 the fishermen took large quantities of smelt through the ice, weighing fre- 
quently two to the pound. One of our deputies was eye-witness to a catch of 139 pounds by one 
man, all large-sized smelt. In the same river, in the winter of 1917-18, some good catches were 
