Some 94% of smelt harvested from the Great Lakes come from Lake Michigan — on both the Michigan and Wisconsin sides. It was around 1993 when smelt stocks began to plummet.

If you like to dip and eat smelt, you can thank a program started in the late 1800’s that planted them in a Benzie County lake. The smelt eventually escaped and spread throughout the Great Lakes ...

Smelt quickly spread throughout Lake Michigan and were discovered in Lake Superior in 1946. By the time smelt arrived in Lake Superior, sea lamprey (another invasive species) had begun reducing ...

Smelt fishing was a cultural force for much of the 20th century in Wisconsin communities on the Lake Michigan and Lake Superior shores but has declined over the last two decades.

There was a slight decrease in Lake Michigan's rainbow smelt numbers throughout that decade then a pretty substantial drop in 1992 and 1993.

Local smelt are a different species (Thaleichthys pacificus) than the Lake Michigan variety (Osmerus mordax, which also inhabit eastern coastal rivers.), but they are of the same family.

According to the most recent work by the USGS, prey fish numbers in Lake Michigan look slightly better, well, not so much with smelt.

The state health department’s 2023 Eat Safe Fish Guides lowers the amount for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, adds recommendations for some inland lakes.

LANSING, MI — It turns out that rainbow smelt and some panfish in Michigan are not as highly contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals’ as previously thought. This week, the Michigan ...

Smelt or the memory of smelt? Tiny flash of hope for smelt on southern Lake Michigan, plus Stray Cast Smelt netting opens Friday night, April 1, in Chicago and a faint hint of hope edges in this ...

Smelt run draws netters to Duluth for tasty spring tradition Warmer spring may have meant an earlier than usual spawning run for little Lake Superior fish.