THE SMELTS 
329 
As observed in Sebago Lake, Me., and other localities, the fresh-water smelt seems 
to prefer certain depths of water and kinds of bottom, the kind of bottom seemingly 
depending to a great extent upon the character of the surrounding country. In one 
locality the proper bottom seemed to be an outcropping of a stratum of gray clay 
on each side of a ridge. Either way, between or beyond these outcroppings, no fish 
could be caught. In Lake Champlain, near Port Henry, a similar condition seems 
to exist. A fisherman stated to the present writer that on each side of the place 
where he was fishing there was a channel, and the fish were caught between the top 
of the interchannel area and one or the other of the two channels. Fishing was 
carried on in water from 30 to 70 feet deep, and usually the larger fish were taken 
in the deeper water. 
SMELT FISHERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN 
As previously indicated, the smelt fishery of Lake Champlain is carried on with 
hook and line through the ice in winter. Cheney (1895) thus describes the method: 
The smelts, to call the fish by their proper name, are caught with hook and line through holes 
cut in the ice. The bait is the eye of a smelt or a piece of flesh cut from the fish near the tail, a 
strip as long and as wide as the little finger of a man’s hand. The fish are caught close to the 
bottom in water from 50 to 60 feet deep, some of the men fishing with a single hook, and some 
with two hooks, one above the other, all placed below the sinker. A peculiarity of the fishing is the 
manner in which the fish are brought to the top of the ice after they are hooked. The line is tied 
to the end of a stick about eighteen inches long. This is moved around and around over the hole 
as if one were stirring the water with the line; suddenly the fisherman gets a bite, and his right arm 
shoots up and out to its full extent, and the left hand, also extended, catches the line, the stick 
then catches the line below the left hand, and this is repeated until the line is reeled in on the end 
of the stick and the left hand, and the smelt is brought to the top of the ice and the hook pulled 
from its mouth. * * *. 
* * * If the smelts were baited to hold them in one spot it is fair to presume that they 
would be found in other parts of the lake than those where they are now known. In Sunapee 
Lake, N. H., the smelts are baited by anchoring a bag of meat or bread, or chopped fish, and thus 
they are held in one place and landlocked salmon are also attracted by the presence of smelts. 
I think the Lake Champlain fishermen make a mistake in placing their hooks below the sinker, 
at least my personal experience in smelt fishing has taught me that more fish will be hooked by 
using a leader with the sinker at the extreme end and the hook placed above it. The sinker keeps 
the line taut, and the smelt biting so gently that it is difficult to distinguish the bite, more readily 
communicates the sensation of a bite than when the hooks are flying loose below a heavy sinker. 
There is no effort made to conceal the hook under the bait in ice fishing, the strip of smelt hangs 
like a wet rag from the bend of the hook, and too, the hooks are so large that it seems strange that 
the smaller smelts are hooked at all. 
Two weeks later another correspondent of the same paper (“ Heathcote,” 1895) 
described the fishing method in a little more detail. He wrote: 
The fish pole is about two feet in length, having an eye at the end for the line to run through, 
and near the base a boat-cleat screwed on to keep the the line on when not in use, and to hold the 
excess of line Drawing the fish-pole to an easy distance with the right hand, a stick of about two 
feet long catches the line (with the left hand) about four feet down; then the fish pole again, and 
so on. The line in this way can be drawn up rapidly, about thirty feet in five seconds. Of course, 
all that is necessary is to keep a steady pull on the line, and as the fish nears the ice, slow up a 
little so as not to rub it off against the sharp edges. Some use the thumb of the left hand and the 
fish-pole in the right, but this is not so fast, and the cold, wet line makes one’s hand ache. Then, 
too, the stick keeps the loops open and free to run out again, whereas when the thumb is used the 
struggling fish is apt to close up some of the loops while you are taking him off. Then comes the 
fun to “pick up your dropped stitches.” 
