Maine smelt camp operators experience worst season ever The head smelt biologist for the state said it’s not clear why the season has been so poor for smelt fishing this winter.

Maine regulators set new restrictions on smelt fishing The new rules are intended to help the fish populations rebuild.

Winter ice fishing for smelt is a beloved pastime in central Maine, where fishermen squat for hours to catch the tiny fish to be fried and eaten whole.

By Maine standards the smelt fishing was slow during that first six-hour tide. Between them, the duo pulled about 30 fish from the icy river.

HALLOWELL (AP) — Traditional Maine smelt fishing is banned in the lower half of the state this spring from Stonington to the New Hampshire border. Battered and fried, the small fish is a spring ...

Winter is for smelt fishing and, compared to other coastal states from New Jersey to New Hampshire, rainbow smelt — or Osmerus mordax — run in thicker schools and for longer seasons in Maine ...

PORTLAND — Maine fishing regulators will soon shut down the state’s popular spring smelt fishing season along the southern coast. Regulators approved new restrictions on fishing for smelt last ...

Biologists are recruiting citizen scientist volunteers to locate and count spawning smelt. The entire Maine coast once came alive with smelt runs as millions of silvery fish left the ocean each ...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine is making it more difficult to fish for smelts in an effort to help the wriggling fish rebuild populations that have plummeted in the state and elsewhere in New ...