To its credit, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W) is beginning to pay increasing attention to its smelt management program.

The rainbow smelt is also called simply “smelt” or “American smelt.” These remarkable little fish play a pivotal role in Maine’s cold-water sport fishery. Although an anadromous species that return from the ocean to spawn in freshwater streams, they also appear as landlocked populations in hundreds of Maine’s deep, cold-water lakes and ponds.

Our smelt populations provide a chief forage base for salmon and lake trout. As most sportsmen know, when the smelt populations in a body of water “crash,” the game fish numbers follow suit. In other words, the key to a robust cold-water sport fishery is a healthy smelt population. This is why wise fisheries management requires careful regulation and scientific understanding of our rainbow smelt.

We know a few things about these amazing little bait fish. We know that they reside in 558 Maine lakes. Although their original distribution in Maine is thought to have been no more than 60 miles inland, they have over the years been introduced into waters, sometimes illegally, by sportsmen and sometimes as part of a plan by state biologists.

Their spawning runs during April ice out are part of Maine’s outdoor legacy. An early spring smelt run, when it is at its peak, must be seen to be believed.

A few years ago in mid April a friend and I spent a pleasant evening dipping smelts on a brook near a pond in Piscataquis County. The brook was black with thousands of these slender, shimmering fish. We pan-fried a few on the spot and took a quart or so home for the freezer.

The pressure on these vital forage fish comes from many different directions. Not only does it come from April dip netters like me and predator game fish as well, but from ice fishermen and commercial bait dealers. (In 1991 estimated sales of smelts in Maine by bait dealers was $1.9 million, which represented nearly 7 million smelt). As state fisheries biologist Jim Pellerin points out, there can be conflicting priorities from different user groups, which play a part in smelt management decision making. The equation is further complicated by the fact that smelt population dynamics are, in many ways, a mystery. As far as I know, fisheries scientists still don’t have a handle on how and why a perfectly robust smelt population will suddenly dwindle or completely “crash” in a body of water.

All of these factors and other variables make proper smelt management a formidable undertaking. Folks at MDIF&W acknowledge this and it is one of the reasons that they have sought to intensify their smelt management strategies.

The department, in concert with a number of public working groups, developed a 15-year species plan for smelt management. Their long range goal “was to maintain existing smelt habitat quantity and quality; and increase smelt abundance and availability where it was possible to moderate current demands as a forage fish, as a sportfish, and as a commercial baitfish.”

Interestingly, the plan found that in five of Maine’s eight fisheries management regions, the demand upon the smelt populations exceeded the sustainable supply. These findings clearly indicate that greater protection measures are warranted, at least in some regions.

Here are the specific smelt management proposals being planned by the Department:

• Maintain existing system of listing waters open to commercial smelting.

• Conduct a comprehensive review of statewide smelt waters.

• Hook & line anglers/dip-netters (without a commercial license) will only be allowed to keep 5-dozen smelt alive; the balance of their limit would have to be killed.

• Establish a 24-inch diameter maximum hoop size for dip-nets.

• Establish a statewide midnight closure for dip-netting.

• Smelt dealers only allowed to dip-net 2 quarts of smelt during the spring spawning season.

• Require smelt dealers to use commercially manufactured graders.

• Commercial anglers will be required to report smelt catch information to MDIF&W.

• Educate and encourage dip-netters to avoid walking on smelt eggs during the spawning season.

• Investigate the feasibility of requiring graders/grader panels installed in the bottom of commercial drop nets.

• MDIF&W pathologist to investigate causes of commercial/retail smelt mortalities.

According to Pellerin, the above proposals have been presented to the Commissioner’s Office, the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council, the Smelt Working Group, and a number of commercial smelt dealers with encouraging results.

“Based on this process, we have already made modifications to the list of commercial smelt waters for the 2005 season. Over the next few months we hope to solicit additional input on these proposals from the general public. If you have any comments or concerns regarding the proposed changes then please feel free to contact Jim Pellerin at the Gray Regional Office.”

Pellerin’s phone number in Gray is 657 2980.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].