Spiel

The key to any good outfit is not about overall weight, it's about balance.

Lord knows I have the time. Thanks both Roy and Art for placing the orders. I will do my best to make you both extremely happy!

No poll needed, it's a brown trout.

The art of the smelt run Nocturnal fishermen keep tradition alive Apr 24, 2010 JON WELLS / www.thespec.com John Rennison, The Hamilton Spectator / A fisherman peers into the water as he gauges this spring's ... The sun's last light has just faded, the sky now blue-black, and the darkened water caps in a rapidly cooling breeze. On the pier, near the lift bridge and lighthouse, portable generators hum, powering floodlights that illuminate small patches of the water, colouring it a murky green. A dozen people man homemade fishing pole contraptions, from which hang rectangular dip nets. To the uninitiated it is an odd scene. But to the nocturnal fishermen who take part every year in the smelt run, it is as much a rite of spring as the first rake of the lawn and the Leafs missing the playoffs. And that goes for eating the little fish, too, which are not much bigger than your index finger. Years ago, writes a smelt enthusiast online, "biting the head off the first smelt was meant to bring luck." See slideshow The local smelt run began at the start of April and will last perhaps another week. Some say it is not what it once was. A journalist declared it a "thing of the past" -- and that was 12 years ago. Certainly the smelt run has changed. The generators are a sign of that. But a thing of the past? A father and son walk up the pier, the son pulling a red wagon that holds their wooden pole-and-pulley tool of the trade. Frank Matruglio, 33, and dad Guido, 73, set up and lower the net. A toque is perched atop Guido's head for the cold night. Frank shines a flashlight beam into the water over the submerged net. It's old school, no cords or generators. The smelt are attracted to the light; the trick is to see them swim near the net and pull it up at the right moment. "You either love it, or you don't," says Frank, as he wonders if tonight perhaps conditions are not ripe for the smelt, the night too dark, the chop getting too rough. There are no smelt in sight. "We are not in a good spot, Frankie," Guido interjects, eyeing a man down the pier. That man wears a hat with furry ear flaps, has a cigarette dangling from his lips, and has them outgunned with two floodlights. His name is Luis Ferreira. He has been doing the Hamilton smelt run for 34 years, but his fishing resume stretches back more years than that and 4,000 kilometres away. Yes, the diehards are here for the smelt run. The question is, are the smelt? Traditions always look best in the rear view mirror, and that goes for the smelt run. Back in the day, 30-40 years ago, smelt were so plentiful in springtime that you could wade into the water off Hamilton Beach, dip a bucket and emerge with a pile of the silver-bellied fish flapping. Beach Strippers cooked smelt over bonfires, after biting or cutting the heads off, removing the guts, and impaling the sardine-sized fish on a stick. Or, they dusted the smelt in flour for frying in a skillet. But the abundance of smelt was not a natural phenomenon in the old days. The relative scarce presence of the fish today is more in keeping with the lake's natural balance. Smelt are not native to the Great Lakes, but rather hail from the Atlantic Ocean. Man brought them here: Construction of the canal shipping system allowed for smelt migration inland, while smelt eggs were planted by the millions in 1912 at Crystal Lake on Lake Michigan's northeast shore. Smelt prefer cold water, so thrived in deep and frigid Lake Superior, but also, eventually, called the deepest parts of Lake Ontario home as well. Years ago, increased pollution in the lake actually served to boost their population by killing off predator fish such as lake trout that would otherwise eat them. Every spring, smelt migrate from near the centre of Lake Ontario to the more shallow, warmer-water shorelines of the lake and also some rivers to lay their eggs, before returning to deep water, and this is when the smelt run is on. The eggs hatch within 15 to 25 days -- a short time frame, which has served the smelt's survival well, certainly compared with whitefish or lake herring, whose eggs take 120 to 140 days to incubate. Smelt are drawn to lay eggs on calm moonlit nights, which means they are also drawn to any kind of light, like the one Luis Ferreira is blasting off the pier. Ferreira, too, is not native to the area. His roots go back to Portugal, the Azores, on the tiny island of Sao Miguel. His father, Joe, owned a fishing boat. As a boy, with his four brothers, they went on runs catching mackerel, tuna, barracuda. They fished with a net, but only for sardines, to use as bait, which they attached to big hooks and steel cables to catch fish, like tuna, that could weigh as much as 300 kilograms (600 pounds) apiece. Joe died of a heart attack when Luis was 15. His brothers stayed, but Luis left Portugal with his mother, Maria, for Hamilton. Today he works as a cement finisher in building construction, and hits the smelt run every year. "I eat some of the fish, but give most of it to others," he says in heavily accented English. "I fish here with my buddy, Agostino." Ferreira stands on the pier, staring into the lit square of light on the water, waiting for a school of smelt to come into view over his dip net. Agostino sits in a chair, smoke wafting from his cigarette, ready to pull up the net by a rope when Luis gives the word. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. "Pull! Agostino! Pull!" He does, hoists the net into the air, about 30 silver smelt flopping, water dripping from the net. "Hey! Oh-ho! Agostino!" a friend yells triumphantly, and Agostino grins. He then scoops the smelt in a metal pot, dumps them in a plastic bucket, and returns the net to the water. By the 1990s, the smelt population in Lake Ontario had declined dramatically, ending the teeming smelt run's glory days of decades past. Pacific salmon and lake trout had been introduced to the lake and they feasted on the smelt (a Chinook salmon eats 10,000 smelt a year). The old days were great, Frank Matruglio says, but they also meant bringing home several pails of fish for mom to help clean, which wasn't always popular. "Everyone likes to catch them, nobody likes to clean them." Most everyone out on the pier on this night have roots abroad. A man named Bill is from China and says he speaks little English, but has been doing the Hamilton smelt run for 20 years. Silvano is from Italy. John is from the Netherlands. And Frank's dad, Guido, who is from a town near Rome, came to Canada back in 1961. Frank and Guido, with their modest flashlight, were having little luck, no smelt at all. Guido kept casting an eye over at the haul taken in by Luis Ferreira. "Pull, Agostino!" Luis bellows again. "Pull! Yes! Agostino!" "Dad," Frank says, "Concentrate, never mind what they're doing." And then, moments later, Frank spotted the slender silver bodies swimming into his light. "Dad, pull!" Guido hoisted the net, and there they were, maybe a dozen smelt. "You just gotta time it right," Frank says. By night's end, Frank and Guido catch maybe a half-pound of smelt. "It's just something different to do, that not a lot of people are doing," Frank says. Today catching smelt is more about intuition, reading the conditions, the weather, with a little low-tech thrown in to help. With patience, a good eye, and a strong light, you can still haul them in -- like Ferreira, who along with his buddies caught enough to fill five tall buckets. But nowadays only the truly dedicated join in. Not like it was? No, it's not. But maybe, all things considered, the smelt run is better than ever. Guido and Frank, Luis and Agostino, Bill, Silvano and the others pack up their dip nets around 10:30 p.m. Maybe just a few more good nights remain, and then it will be over, until next spring, when the smelt hatched this season will be full-grown. And then, just as sure as the spring air warms and the moon appears in the sky, they will return to the same spot along the shore, and the game will be on again.

Perhaps I was wrong to train my little girl to stay well away from the creek banks? She could very well be better at catching fish than me.

A great day on the water with your Pops and brother. Good to see a southern report, thanks Joe.

I'd be happy with those results, hell I'd have been happy with one. In fact I was even tossing the same lure as the one in your picture, great lure.

It wasn't all that much about as it was out. As noted above, I was out. I'd venture I fished no more than 40 minutes and likely made less than 2 dozen casts. The creek was almost without water so I spent a little time bending me elbow while letting Brook play with the neighbours dog before calling a day. Not a terribly exciting report for opener.

Skunked !

Chris was napping all afternoon.

Well there be lots a wood where I need to get my lure into Joe. That's what you mean, right?

Doh....my bad Geoff, might be, or is likely the beer. My apologies, not sure how that happened, so embarrassed. Pay the bills first Wayne, then everything else will be copa.....GOOD.

Thank you much Wayne, I'll do my best fish or not! Are you heading out for some opener action?

LOL....I thought so to Dann and shaved it all off today after about 10 years of sporting it. Problem is under all that hair my face got fat. Thanks Joey. I don't expect I'll be out long but I plan on enjoying it to the fullest!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....I get it.

I'm not sure the "Amazing Kreskin" could tell you that Terry.

In less than 10 hours I'll be hunting for these beauties again. They should be in their familiar haunts only bigger than last year. Best o luck to all you trout nuts.

It's an easy fix Doug. First it's not epoxy tape, it's actually thread with a so called two part epoxy coating. You can remove all the old gunk and wind a new guide on, not hard to do with all the right stuff at hand or you can PM me.

I wish it were 11 going but it won't be happening this year.

ehg nailed it, that's definitely a Fallfish and of course the other is a nice little Brookie.

Tuna mercury levels vary by species 21/04/2010 cbc.ca/news Scientists with the American Museum of Natural History and New Jersey's Rutgers University found grocery store sushi tends to be yellowfin tuna, which has lower mercury levels than other species of tuna. "We found that mercury levels are linked to specific species," Jacob Lowenstein, a graduate student affiliated with the museum, said in a release. Restaurants and fish merchants are not required to identify species. "But species names and clearer labeling would allow consumers to exercise greater control over the level of mercury they imbibe," said Lowenstein. Their research was published on Wednesday in Biology Letters, a peer-reviewed journal. The study is based on sushi samples from 54 restaurants and 15 supermarkets in New York, New Jersey, and Colorado. Concerned about all levels Despite their findings about grocery store tuna, the researchers say their study shows that all species exceed or approach levels permissible by Canada, the EU, Japan, the U.S., and the World Health Organization. Mercury is a naturally occurring element and a serious health hazard. Chronic exposure can damage the brain, spinal cord, kidneys, liver and developing fetus. Exposure in the womb can lead to neuro-developmental problems in children. In general, mercury levels are significantly higher in lean fish because it has an affinity for muscle and not fatty tissue. That means higher levels in bluefin akami (sushi from lean, dark red tuna) and all bigeye tuna than in bluefin toro (sushi from fatty tuna) and yellowfin tuna akami. The researchers caution that there seem to be other factors involved. Although yellowfin tuna is very lean, it tends to have less mercury, likely because the fish are typically smaller than other tuna and are harvested at a younger age. In addition, yellowfin are tropical and don't need to eat as much as warm-blooded bigeye tuna and bluefin tuna to maintain their energy level. That could mean yellowfin tuna don't increase their level of toxins as quickly as other species. The study results are based on 100 samples, all of which were identified with DNA barcoding and tested for relative mercury content. "This is one of first applications of DNA barcodes in a non-academic setting-using this method in any human health context and not just for determining whether barcodes can quickly and accurately identify a species," Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, a geneticist at the museum, said in a release.

Looks like some mighty fine craftsmanship.

Vinegar (5% acetic acid) will disolve away the egg shell in a matter weeks.

I'm pleased to hear you both had a great time and that you were able to find people to drink with TJ. Looks like a swell place to shake off the winter blues. I can see why you like this shot..... very cool! I think Dave is gonna have to get off that Subway diet, he's looks about a pound away from being washed out to sea.