Others migrate to inland coastal waters such as Puget Sound to spawn on beaches, while other smelt varieties migrate into river systems to spawn in river gravels. The surf smelt and Eulachon, Thaleichthys pacificus, are probably the most common local smelt. Eulachon, anadromous smelt that migrate into the Columbia and Fraser river systems, is also called candlefish because of the Native American practice of drying the fish and burning the preserved fish as a candle. One moment they're in a loose ball with only the ambient weavings of the outer fish noticeable. Then, something, a shadow or movement in the water, causes them to pull in tightly.
Light pulses off their bodies, a submerged flashing silver strobe.
On-going exploratory surveys continue to discover new, unreported surf smelt spawning areas. Surf smelt spawn in the upper intertidal during high tides. Females glue their eggs to coarse sand or fine gravel as males swim through, fertilizing the eggs. Incubation takes two to five weeks depending on water temperature. Hatching most likely occurs at high tide too, so that the newly hatched fish are carried off the beach by the ebb tide into the cover of eelgrass or algae beds.