THE SMELTS 
321 
Catching with the hands is easily done; it is as simple as picking up “wet corn cobs.” The 
roughness of the smelt in the water, or when fresh from it, makes it an easy matter to retain a 
hold on them. 
Spearing is done after the manner of “ jabbing suckers, ” I suppose, and is not a sportsman- 
like manner of killing anything but sharks and sword-fish. The same may be said of netting. 
I do not dwell upon these methods for their merits as true sport, but simply to show the 
pratice of the times. Both nets and spears are prohibited by the laws of the State, but no penalty. 
Smelts are protected “above tide water,” but nothing in the law is understood to apply to the 
fresh-water smelt. Some attempt has been made to call attention to the necessity of some act to 
regulate the taking of these smelts, but so far without success. 
Fishing through the ice is practiced on Sebago Lake in February and March — usually in about 
sixty-five feet of water. Small hooks are baited with bits of pork or something of the kind, and 
are lowered toward the bottom. 
Cheney (1894b) thus describes the method of fishing for smelts in Sunapee 
Lake, N. H.: 
The tackle used in catching smelts is a hand line of small size, although the size is not material, 
and a fine leader 9 feet long. Have the leader tied with loops, three in number, exclusive of the 
two end loops for attaching snelled hooks. To one of the end loops of the leader fasten a sinker 
of sufficient weight to take the line quickly to the bottom. A pear-shaped sinker, with wire swivel 
and IW-oz. in weight, is what I have used. Fasten three snelled hooks, number 9 or 10, to the 
three loops in the leader and your smelt line is complete. Fish very near to the bottom and be 
constantly on the alert, for smelt bite very delicately and it requires some experience to hook them. 
For bait use earth worms untill you get a smelt, and thereafter bait the hook with pieces of cut-up 
smelt, which they seem to prefer to any bait which can be offered to them on a hook. 
The present writer observed the method of smelt fishing in Sunapee Lake and 
even caught some smelts himself in 1910 and 1911. The hook-and-line fishing was 
done principally to secure bait for salmon and trout. The sinker was fastened at 
the end of the line and two or more hooks were put on a little distance above. No 
leader was used. As toll bait a paper bag of oatmeal was lowered to the bottom 
and then broken, letting out the meal, which was supposed to attract the smelts. 
Usually earthworms were used first, then a small piece of the belly of the smelt. 
The smelts, as elsewhere shown, were small— smaller than any that the writer 
ever caught on a hook elsewhere. They were just right for trout and salmon bait. 
As stated elsewhere, the depth of water was 80 or 90 feet. 
A line with one or two hooks below the sinker was employed by summer fisher- 
men in Sebago Lake, Me. In fact, one man used the same rig that he used in winter. 
As an innovation, which proved satisfactory, the writer used a brass wire spreader 
fastened to the line just below the swiveled sinker, with a snelled hook at each end. 
His preference for the large smelts was a No. 1 sproat hook. The fishing was usually 
in about 70 feet of water — sometimes more and occasionally less. 
The bait varied according to what was available; sometimes only earthworms 
could be had, and with that possibly a smelt would be caught; then a short strip 
from the belly of the fish was used. Earthworms, while occasionally readily taken, 
as a rule were not very satisfactory. Usually the most successful baits were the 
young of suckers, chubs, or other minnows, from an inch upward in length; but occa- 
sionally the smelt would not bite readily on this bait but would take the piece of 
smelt with avidity. When a large smelt bites, one has no doubt of the fact, at least 
he is sure that he has a bite, but the bite by a larger fish, such as “ cusk,” salmon, or 
