Spring brings net gain for anglers who savor smelt

What Johnny-come-lately to Lake Michigan is commonly fried inbeer batter, but is tastier than tempura and brings hungry hordes offishermen to the lake shores most April evenings?

It's the silvery little smelt, and its presence is a sure signthat spring is here.

There are uncounted millions of them scattered through the lake,but in spring they migrate into shallow water to feed and spawn, saidWayne Brofka, research biologist with the Illinois Natural HistorySurvey, Zion.

"When the water gets to 40 degrees or above, they start moving,"he said. So far, the water has hovered around 39 or 40, according tothe Chicago Park District, so smelting has only been so-so.

The smelt follow the water as it warms around the edges of LakeMichigan, first in the southern end and then up the Wisconsin shore.The little fish school in search of shallows and streams to lay theireggs.

"They spawn in extremely large numbers," laying countless eggsbecause bigger fish eat them, Brofka said. "Most heavily predatedspecies have astronomical numbers of offspring," he said.

The large schools tend to come inshore at night to feed oninsect larva and zooplankton, he said, but they will "run" also onvery cloudy days or when the water is murky.

Right on their tails come the predators, trout and salmon thatfollow the smelt run and are already being caught off city harborsthis spring.

The bigger game fish not only eat the smelt but, in a roundaboutway, are responsible for smelt being in Lake Michigan.

Smelt are what fishery biologists call "exotics," foreign fishnot native to their present habitat. They were originally anAtlantic Ocean fish, but they did not invade the Great Lakes byascending the St. Lawrence River.

Instead, smelt were stocked in Crystal Lake, Mich., in 1912 tobe food for salmon that fishermen planted for their private preserve.

The salmon died, but the smelt thrived and found their way downa stream into Lake Michigan. By 1931, they were found as far southas Kenosha, said Brofka, and now are everywhere.

In Illinois, smelt mainly are a game fish caught for fun, butthere are some commercial smelt fishermen in Green Bay and off TwoRivers, Wis.