THE SMELTS 
249 
made, but the ice was very thick, and on extremely cold days the fish did not bite. There was an 
average of from 12 to 40 pounds. The prices received were from 21 to 35 cents. The average 
smelt this year ran four or five to the pound. 
Some years ago eggs were planted in Poor Farm Brook in Saugus where smelt had been 
extinct for some years, and three years from the next fall there was good fishing. 
An analysis of the foregoing indicates that many years ago smelts were abun- 
dant. The catches of the eighties also indicate that they were still plentiful. Records 
of anglers fishing in the vicinity of Boston and along the north shore in that period 
support the evidence, but in the nineties there is evidence of decline. This may be 
illustrated by taking Dukes County alone, where the seine fishing in the Great Ponds 
was practically monopolized by two or three individuals. In 1880 this county had 
a catch of approximately 3,687 pounds, which constitute about 97.9 per cent of the 
total catch of Massachusetts, as shown by available statistics. In 1882 the catch 
of the same county constituted 100 per cent of the total State catch, and in that year 
exceeded the total catch of Massachusetts by some 2,000 pounds; but in 1908 no 
smelts were reported from Dukes County, although the county may have been 
included in the category “ all other counties,” which showed some 500 pounds. In 
1900 other counties were represented in the statistics — that is, Bristol and Barn- 
stable — with something over 59 per cent of the total catch, Dukes County having a 
little over 35 per cent. In 1905 the total catch of the State somewhat exceeded 
that of 1900, the increase being attributable to the hook-and-line fishing of Essex 
County, which was first recorded in this year. Dukes, Bristol, and Barnstable 
Counties each fell off, Bristol, however, leading. In 1908 Essex County reported 
62.5 per cent of the total State catch, of which 81.25 per cent was by hook and line. 
It is quite evident that for some years the smelt fishery of Massachusetts has 
been declining, notwithstanding the prohibition of dip nets and seines, which was 
intended to protect them. But other things were not equal; while there is no definite 
information at hand, everything being taken into consideration, it seems evident 
that the depletion is not wholly attributable to excessive and untimely fishing, except 
possibly in the case of Dukes County, but to the fact that streams formerly resorted 
to for spawning had become unsuitable or inaccessible. 
Maine . — In Maine, fishing for smelts through the ice seems to have been one of 
the most primitive methods, for in 1677 Josselyn thus described the Indian way: 
The Frostfish (O. mordax ) is little bigger than a Gudgeon, and are taken in fresh brooks; when 
the waters are frozen they make a hole in the ice, about half a yard or yard wide, to which the 
fish repair in great numbers, where, with small nets bound to a hoop about the bigness of a firkin- 
hoop, with a staff fastened to it, they take them out of the hole. 
It is not known whether present-day ice fishermen use dip nets, but hook-and-line 
fishing through the ice was the practice long before any sort of net was used, except 
dip nets in the brooks during the spawning runs. 
Of smelt angling for sport alone their appear to be no records in this State, but 
there are accounts of winter fishing with hook and line for profit. Many hook-and- 
line fishermen combine business with pleasure, disposing of their catches by sale. 
The principal hook-and-line fishery was, and still is, largely a commercial proposition 
in certain localities along the coast. According to Hallock (1893) Portsmouth, N. H., 
near the Maine border, was a favorite winter resort for smelt fishermen, but now 
