BOWDOINHAM, Maine - Breaded and fried in butter, smelts are a delicacy for many Mainers. But the small forage fish, which once roamed the estuaries and rivers from the Chesapeake Bay to Canada, has all but vanished from Massachusetts on south.
A decade ago, federal regulators classified them as a "Species of Concern." And while they are showing up in Maine this season, anglers here are hoping that, with smaller numbers of fish, they won't also lose a much-loved winter pastime.
You can still find them for sale in the grocery store this time of year and on the menu in certain restaurants, but the popular fish that were once landed in the millions of pounds are getting harder to catch.
"2014 was the only year that, during all of our sampling, I never caught a fish," says Claire Enterline. "And I don't like to think that I'm that bad of a fisherman."
Enterline is a marine scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources which monitors smelt populations, and undertook an emergency closure of the spring dip net fishery when surveys showed there was a problem last year.
"It's not like it was just us," Enterline says. "You know, in all of our interviews it would be the same thing and people were really worried."
Smelts are anadromous fish that live in saltwater and migrate to freshwater, bringing with them special nutrients. Seals, cod, striped bass, great blue herons and other seabirds love them.
So do Maine fishermen, like Bill Jones of Limerick and his friend, Craig Fales. They're retired and looking for a break from cabin fever.
"If you come out here on a weekend, a Friday or a Saturday, it' s like a nightclub out here," Jones says. "The place is packed. Everyone's out here yelling, screaming. I mean it's pretty rowdy. It's fun."
Here at the River Bend smelt camp on the Cathance River in Bowdoinham, two dozen commercially-run ice shacks are set up in a straight line, wood smoke curling from their tiny metal chimneys. A heavy snow has created thick slush on top of the ice. Inside the ice shack with a woodstove going, it's warm enough to fish in short sleeves.
"Caught one, dad?" Gabe Watcher asks.
"Nope, just keepin' an eye out on 'em," replies Jacques St. Onge.
Nine-year-old Wachter, of Lisbon, is trying out smelt fishing with his father and grandfather, something they do a few times a year. Like most anglers, they've rented their ice shack for six hours, long enough to cover the tide that brings in the fish.
The shack has pre-cut, rectangular holes cut into the ice on two sides, a series of weighted fishing lines baited with bloodworms attached to the walls.
So far, between the three of them, they've caught eight smelt. But Gabe's grandfather, Pete St. Onge, who's been fishing for most of his life, can remember when the fish and the fishermen were more plentiful. He points to a five-gallon bucket. "We used to fill buckets like this," he says. "Now, if we can fill a bucket we're doing good."
Susan Sharon: "You used to fill more than one bucket?"
Pete St. Onge: "Yeah, in a four-man camp we could fill two buckets."
In its heyday, just a few decades ago, there were twice as many ice fishing shacks set up at River Bend Camps. But owner Andy Wallentine says that's no longer possible because of the changing weather and lack of ice.
"Well, like this year we didn't get started 'til the second week of January. It was open water out here," he says. "The winters don't seem to be as cold as they used to be. It has been longer seasons. I seen 12 weeks. Now we're lucky if we got eight weeks."
Wallentine says last year his clients walked off the ice with no fish. This season is looking better, with some fishermen catching half a bucket full.
But Claire Enterline of DMR says smelt fishing seems to be cyclical, and during the good years the fish still aren't bouncing back enough. Scientists don't know why.
"A lot of people ask what's the reason that it's happening and there's no one reason," Enterline says. "There's a lot of things going on."
Those include rising sea temperatures, polluted runoff and changes in prey and predators in the Gulf of Maine.
But the problems are not confined to any one area. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are dealing with similar issues. And Enterline says the one thing that can be controlled is fishing effort, which is why there's a proposed rule to close parts of Maine from Owls Head west to Kittery to spring smelt season statewide again in Maine this year.
