Smelt are no more....

[ICEMAN]

Not good news at all. Wildlife has closed the entire state to smelt fishing it appears.

For those of you who have never smelt fished... I will share my experience

When I was young, we used to occasionally go and hit the cowlitz for a bucket of smelt. Not every year, but just occasionally. We would go down, scoop them out of the river with a dip net on a long pole. There would be other guys doing the same. I do not recall it being incredibly crowded. We would get a bucket for the home, and take em home and smoke them in the smoker, or pan fry them.  This was in the late 70's and early 80's. I got busy with life thru the 80's and did not harvest any at all for years. Early 90's I would hear of smelt in the river and go hit one of the popular spots and dip net a bucket for my personal consumption. I was shocked to see so many people with nets. I forget but as I recall you could harvest four to five gallons per person?  No license needed for smelt. 

I remember two years in a row where I would go down for a bucket of smelt, maybe mid 90's. Both years the rivers edge was so crowded. No license needed, I never saw any enforcement checking your take. The rivers edge was crawling with large extended families with many many kids, with dads scooping and scooping until everyones bucket was full. It was actually difficult to find riverspace to dip at my favorite spot in Woodland. Wow, things have changed.

Now, it has been a few years since I have been able to dip at all. No fish returns. Not enough it appears for sport harvest.

OK, here is the reason for my post.

Q? Why are we at the point of closing this fishery down?

Commercial overharvest?

Overharvest by sport fishermen?

Environmental factors man caused?

Environmental non man caused?


I would argue that we should not have any commercial harvest of any species until an excess of resource is verified after the sport fishermen harvest. Sport fisherment first, then maybe commercial harvest. I would also argue that the basically unregulated "sport harvest" with little to no enforcement, literally huge extended families taking home trunk loads of fish day after day when the fish do return to the river has damaged the local resource.

I would also like to know if the rivers systems to our north are suffering the same as ours. What does the answer to this question indicate?









Statewide closure of eulachon smelt

Action: Closes sport fishing for eulachon (Columbia River) smelt statewide.

Effective dates: Dec. 15, 2010.

Species affected: Eulachon smelt (Thaleichthys pacificus )

Location: Statewide, all marine and freshwater areas.

Reasons for action: Eulachon smelt are listed under the Endangered Species Act as “threatened”.  There are no harvestable populations within the state and the statewide fishing closure will provide additional protection.

Information Contact: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Program,   (360) 902-2700, FISHPGM@dfw.wa.gov .   

[runamuk]

We raked smelt on the beach on Camano in the 70's and 80"s tasty little fishes it was fun havent done it since I was a kid/teen.

[gotshot]

I too used to love to dip smelt. When I was a boy they used to sell them on street corners 3 lbs. for a buck. It has been at least ten yrs. since I have seen any come out of the river. It is a shame my grandkids will never get to experience it because of what I believe is from over harvest. I saw an old friend last year who hit the coast at just the right time and dipped ten pounds right out of the surf. That is usually in June or July around Klahlock so I don't know if this closure includes ocean dipping or not. Sad case either way.

[gasman]

Me too, we used to to the Cowlitz every year as kids with my uncle's family and dip for smelt. As kids we had a blast but when we got home and had to clean the smely, that changed our tune 

I would like to do it again some time, but dont look like i will 

[Huntbear]

We too used to go dip smelt when I was a kid.  Pan fryed in a cast iron skillet in butter..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


To bad that it is closed, however, not surprising.  Maybe they can rebuild the runs, and once again, the runs will be in the billions.

[singleshot12]

1. Environmental factors man has caused 2. Commercial overharvest - in that order..

Smelt are one of the main food sources for sturgeon too especially on the Columbia (NOT GOOD!)

[woodrat]

1. Environmental factors man has caused 2. Commercial overharvest - in that order..

+1, although I wouldn't exempt sport harvest from the equation either. The Elochoman River near me has been closed to smelt for as long as I've lived here, but locals still catch them anyway, and mostly they use them for bait, they don't even eat them!   

Harvest should have sharply restricted a long time ago, instead of waiting for an ESA listing to do something about it. Sad. Hopefully this is not too little, too late.

[cohoho]

Never did it, but would see the guy and girls along the hwy dipping at Twenty-Mile river in AK.  They would get five gallon buckets full in no time...  Did something close in Michigan for I thought were also smelt with the yoppers...

[shoot-em-dead]

We used to catch them with our hands in Michigan as kids. We could never cook enough either. They were great. When I moved out west I got my limit in Kelso and just couldn't wait to chow down. Holy cow they tasted like $hit. I tried them again the next year and same deal. I think the taste has something to do with being straight from the ocean over here. In Michigan they are in fresh water for a long time before harvest. So I am a firm believer that they are good for sturgeon bait and that is it. Too bad they had to shut it down but I can't argue that the runs have been steadily decreasing over the years. 

[PolarBear]

We use to dip them out of Totten Inlet in the 80's by the bucket.  This is the first year in at least 15 that my Dad has seen signs of smelt in the bay and there were very few at that.

[chester]

Did it out of the Copper a couple times when i was little. never did in washington tho

[huntergreg]

We raked smelt on the beach on Camano in the 70's and 80"s tasty little fishes it was fun havent done it since I was a kid/teen.

Me to we did it when I was younger also. Fun to rake in. But haven done it in years

[Sumpnneedskillin]

Aunt and Uncle used to live in Kelso.  I remember visiting once in a while during the run.  We'd stop and get some smoked smelt on the way home.  Haven't had any in about 30 years or so.

[Alchase]

We use to rent the nets at the Pacific beaches every year when I was a kid back in the 70s. We could even catch them by hand back them. Still can't believe we use to play in that freezing cold water all day, lol.
Fried smelt with Johnny's seasoning, yum 

[Boss .300 winmag]

My grandpa used to get them from the columbia and have everyone over for a smelt fry, miss those days.