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 ...

A five-hour opening for recreational smelt dipping along the Cowlitz River brought Snow Bai and her 11-year-old daughter Jessica nearly an hour north Saturday.

Smelt are occasionally caught during late fall; however, smelt fishing begins in earnest with the formation of ice in the Great Bay estuary and its tributaries.

According to the web site www.cptdave.com, smelt, or rainbow smelt, are small fish found along inshore areas and tributaries from Newfoundland to New Jersey.

Higher smelt populations at the Quabbin and Wauchusett reservoirs would undoubtedly result in greater trout and salmon fishing there. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

LONGVIEW — Though this year’s smelt fishing season was only one-day long, dippers netted more than 160 violations.

Every winter on New Hampshire's Seacoast, villages of smelt ice fishing shanties appear on the rivers, but in recent years the smelt populations in the Great Bay estuary have been on the decline.

July 09, 2022 New Discovery Channel fishing show shot completely in New Jersey Host Nick Honachefsky highlights South Jersey angling destinations down the shore like Sea Isle City and Barnegat Bay ...

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.

But state officials shut down spring smelt fishing on the southern half of the coast last year. The new rule proposal was unpopular among some fishermen and proprietors of smelt camps.

Rainbow smelt, a tasty, non-native fish that for a century has been sought after by Lake Michigan fishermen, have declined but still draw netters.