The art of the smelt run

[Spiel]

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.

 

[cure-hb]

really wanna try, just don't have time. i heard that's not really easy, is that ture?

[cure-hb]

my friend said you don't really need to clean them, you can just wash it, can but some salt and deep fired them.

[Stern Rules]

Isn't it illegal to use a light to attract fish?

[john117]

not for smelts.

[waki5]

what is a smelt? i've heard of smelt fishing with dip nets but have never seen it in action. i heard it was unbelievable in past years. it would be interesting to see now they do it.

[waki5]

just wondering what they taste like?

[waki5]

sorry, are they even safe to eat out of Lake Ontario

[Rod Caster]

We net them in creeks every spring. Delicious little buggers...great with eggs and bacon. The hardest thing is finding a productive creek and timing it properly

 

 

[Fishnwire]

They are delicious. We'd use scissors to clean them. One guy would snip of the head, another would slit open the belly and a third would pull out the guts and wash the smelt. We'd coat them in a dry batter and deep fry them. Once cooked, you could either grab the tail and pull out the spine or just eat it whole caveman-style. On the small ones you barely notice the bones.

 

I did my smelting on the Magnetawhan river in the town of Britt in the late 80's. The hauls weren't bad but even then my Dad would look at my evening's catch and say that back in the day he get that much in a half dozen scoops of the net.

 

The scene on the shore of the Mag when the smelt were running was something else. TONS of fisherman...most of them hillariously drunk. There'd be a bon-fire every 50 feet and an empty beer bottle under just about every step you took. Usually every night there'd be a fight over territory or whatever, and often some drunken bush-whacker from Noelville would fall in and nearly drown. Good times.

Edited January 27, 2011 by GoodMan

[waki5]

Thanks for the info guys. i think i'm going to do some research for my area and see if i can find some smelt. is there a water temp i should be looking for?

[Rod Caster]

Look for creeks coming off cold deep lakes, where you'll typically find smelt.

 

On the other hand, Nipissing apparently has smelt but Nipissing is a shallow warm lake...hmmmm

[waki5]

at these creeks should i be right at the mouth or twenty feet up. or just along the shore near the the creek? sorry for all the questions

[Fishnwire]

waki5...as far as the water temp goes, I'm really not sure but shortly after the river breaks up (a week or two) and generally coinciding with a full moon, the run will be strongest. You basically have to go out there (or get reports from those who have) over a one to three week period until they start coming in. It'll be a little different each year depending on when ice-out happens, the weather, the lunar cycle and whatever else.

 

As far as where to fish, we always fished right in the current (not too strong) and just put the net out 8-12 feet from the shore (the length of the pole) and held it down so it touched the bottom of the river with the open part being perpendicular to the direction of current.

 

Chances are if there are smelt around, there will be smelt fisherman...set up where they are, when they are there, and do what they are doing. I never had to look for them, I just went where the crowds were. They were there for a reason.

 

Geez…Talking about this is really making me think I want to go smelting this spring for the first time in about 20 years.

[dada2727]

Anyone ever had any luck with them using them as deadbait? My buddies swear by it but I've tried it for lakers and haven't had any luck. Theres a few runs around the minden area, lots of smelt lakes up there.

[bigugli]

Great pike and cat bait.

[misfish]

I,ll stick with Kaplin.

 

Thanks for the read Spiel.

[Loadman]

mmm smelts////:clapping:

[Ralph Field]

When I was 50 years younger ,going to Port Stanley to catch smelt was a yearly tradition. Most knights the beach was lit up with bonfires and fishermen decked out in waders would use seine nets to capture smelt. The pier was also open for fishing and folks with dip nets would catch what they wanted. Now there doesn't seem to be any left, some claim the salmon, trout, and walleye ate them all. I do not know why they disappeared but it is sad that my children will never get to experience the smelt run in Lake Erie.

[wildeye rainbow]

I too remember the good old smelt days off the pier at Pt Stanley when I was a kid. Some nights you couldn't lift the net cause there were so many smelt in there.

 

Smelt are still around but not like they were in the 60's and 70's. I have been dipping my dad's vintage 6' x 6' smelt net (bought in the 60's at CTC) off the pier at Bruce. I have been getting enough for a few feeds of smelt every spring. A lot more work but it is nice to get out.

 

WR

[Jen]

When the water finally freezes over, I used to like taking the boys down to Port Colborne by the Mill to fish for smelt. We could fill a small bucket. Having little competitions to see who caught the most. A little red yarn on your line and you could pull them up one after another. A great way to keep the kids interested in ice fishing for sure. Plus they make a great snack once you get home.

[Canuck]

They are delicious. We'd use scissors to clean them. One guy would snip of the head, another would slit open the belly and a third would pull out the guts and wash the smelt. We'd coat them in a dry batter and deep fry them. Once cooked, you could either grab the tail and pull out the spine or just eat it whole caveman-style. On the small ones you barely notice the bones.

 

I did my smelting on the Magnetawhan river in the town of Britt in the late 80's. The hauls weren't bad but even then my Dad would look at my evening's catch and say that back in the day he get that much in a half dozen scoops of the net.

 

The scene on the shore of the Mag when the smelt were running was something else. TONS of fisherman...most of them hillariously drunk. There'd be a bon-fire every 50 feet and an empty beer bottle under just about every step you took. Usually every night there'd be a fight over territory or whatever, and often some drunken bush-whacker from Noelville would fall in and nearly drown. Good times.

Went there (Britt) as a kid with my Dad. Exactly as described above. We never went back. Good time for some maybe. Not me.

[OhioFisherman]

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/story/201604090006

 

This story is from last year, back in the early 60's we used to catch the perch fishing on Lake Erie.