THE SMELTS 
315 
Young lake trout and landlocked salmon have no more chance among smelt than young lambs * 
have in a pack of wolves. Anyone who has fished through the ice for smelt, and has seen them 
dart a yard or more and strike a heavy sinker or large bait, can judge whether they are predatory 
fish or not. The boys catch them without a hook, by simply tying a white rag to a line for bait; 
the smelt strike this and hold on and are drawn out of the water. I have seen quite a number 
caught in this way. The smelt’s mouth is large and well armed with sharp, hooked teeth. They 
are well equipped for business, and they breed like the plague of flies in Egypt. A pretty style of 
fish this to introduce into lake trout and landlocked salmon waters. Remember, when hungry they 
will attack a fish of nearly their own size and weight. This I know to be absolutely true. The 
most unfortunate part of the whole business is this, that the smelt live nearly the whole year 
round in the identical depth of water that trout, both young and old, frequent. 
The introduction of smelt into the great lakes would be almost a national calamity. The 
day it is done foretokens the extinction of the trout fishing, both commerical and sporting. 
Being myself an old fisherman and something of a student naturalist, I call upon the Fish 
Commissioners to rise and explain. 
Mr. Bishop’s diatribe, just quoted, elicited a reply in defense of the smelt from 
H. O. Stanley (1897), then one of the fish and game commissioners of Maine. He 
wrote : 
I notice in your paper June 5 an article by Mr. Bainbridge Bishop entitled, “Are Smelts a 
Menace?”. The writer, I should judge, is not familar with the habits and characteristics of the 
fresh-water smelt of Maine, which is the variety we are introducing into the lakes in Maine. 
This fish does not feed on the young of other fishes. In that respect they are as harmless as the 
sucker. Even if they did, they do not come into waters where you would find the young trout 
and salmon, i. e., near the shore. This smelt is only found in deep water away from the shore, 
feeding mostly from the surface. 
If the gentleman has ever been in Maine, the home of the landlocked salmon, and is familar 
with their origin, he must know that every lake where they are placed by nature abounds in 
smelts. He should also know that we cannot successfully raise fine salmon without smelts for 
food. In every lake in Maine where you find the smelt, there you find the finest trout, salmon 
and pickerel, and in greater abundance. In every instance where we have introduced the smelt, 
the salmon and trout have at once increased in size and quality in a very marked degree. 
I think the gentleman need borrow no trouble about any harm coming to the trout and sal- 
mon by the introduction of the fresh-water smelt. We think so much of them in Maine that we 
are introducing them into every pond adapted to them in the State. 
Mr. Bishop’s accusations against the smelt, above quoted, were preceded by a 
reference to alleged damages to trout following the introduction of pickerel into 
certain waters, which he supplemented by the following warning: 
It is a serious matter to disturb the balance of nature. Men should consider carefully be 
fore venturing to do so. 
This is sound advice that should be applied to every proposition to introduce 
any nonindigenous species, not excepting the smelt, into any body of water. If in 
the past the commissioners of inland fisheries in Maine had considered the possible 
results of indiscriminate fish-cultural distribution in that State, present problems of 
inland fisheries conservation might have been avoided. However, as Stanley said, 
every lake naturally inhabited by landlocked salmon contained smelts; and, as stated 
elsewhere, the smelt may have been an important factor in the “ landlocking ” of 
salmon. Furthermore, as indicated by Stanley, there is no known instance of the 
successful establishment of introduced landlocked salmon where smelts also have not 
been introduced. 
