THE SMELTS 
265 
ANGLING FOR MARINE SMELT 
Probably the oldest printed account of smelt fishing for sport is a short sketch 
entitled “Smelt Fishing — As practiced in Boston,” which appeared in the American 
Turf Register and Sporting Magazine for October, 1832 (Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 85). The 
author, who signed himself “Walton, Jr.,” after a preliminary reference to the 
novice’s fly fishing and a highly laudatory description of the smelt as a pan fish, 
went on to say: 
This amiable fish frequents our shores during the fall and winter months. In the latter season 
he runs up rivers to spawn, but he affords sport to the angler, from September to December. At 
this time, our wharves and docks are crowded with anglers of all sorts, sizes, and colors, and in no 
kind of fishing is the effect of skill and good tackle more evident * * *. I have known twelve 
dozen killed in one tide by one sportsman, but he was a right good one. I, myself, with one other 
killed seven dozen in two hours one cold morning in November. 
A light fly rod is the best for this sport, your line of silk or grass. Running tackle is not 
essential, but every true angler will use it, on account of its superior neatness and convenience. 
The main thing is the disposition of the hooks, which should be from four to ten in number, each 
hook whipped on a strong bristle, and attached to the snood (which is of gimp) by a little swivel 
of bone or ivory, so that it may turn freely in any direction, observing that the hook stands at 
right angles with the snood— this is to prevent so many hooks from entangling. A large cork float, 
well painted, is to be used — the best bait is the minnow— though the angle worm is used, or better 
still, a smelt’s throat. You will have a small tin kettle, with the cover pierced with holes, for your 
baits, and a creel strapped to your back for your fish. 
Being thus appointed, you arrive on the ground at young flood, if a frosty morning so much 
the better; bait each of your hooks with a minnow, passing it carefully under the back fin, so as 
to allow him to play freely — graduate your float so as to fish at mid water, after drawing up your 
line and letting it sink again. When your float goes under water, give a moment’s time, and then 
strike him with a gentle turn of the wrist, which is much more killing than the furious twitches 
which some delight in. In this way you may catch two or three smelts at once, and a lady might 
kill her dozen of fish without soiling her flounces. This, although not so exciting as killing dandies 
might do by way of variety. 
Seventeen years later Frank Forester (Herbert, 1849, p. 175) expressed some 
doubt that the smelt was ever taken by hook and line. He listed the American 
smelt as “Osmerus Viridescens; Le Sueur, De Kay, Agassiz,” with a recognizable cut 
He wrote: 
This highly-prized and delicious little fish does not properly fall within the angler’s catalogue 
of sporting fishes, inasmuch as it is questionable, at least, whether it is ever taken with the hooks 
I have heard it positively asserted that it has been captured, both with the fly and with its own 
roe, but I consider the fact doubtful, to say no more— the fish having probably been confounded 
with the Atherine or Sand-smelt, a small fish commonly known in this country as Sparling, and 
much used as a bait fish. 
Later in his discussion of the smelt, however, he says : 
It would by no means surprise me to find, that, during the time when Smelt run up our streams, 
they may be taken freely, either with a very small bright fly, or with morsels of shrimp or pellets 
of their own roe, upon a number-twelve Limerick Trout-hook, and thrown like a fly, on the surface. 
Should such prove to be the case, they would afford very pretty light fishing at a time when there 
is no other sport for the angler. 
The author was evidently somewhat uninformed concerning smelt fishing, which 
was commonly practiced in the vicinity of Boston even in his time. 
