Feeding on many small invertebrates and some small fish, they, in turn, are preyed upon by other fishes, including many of our most prized sport species, such as the lake trout and landlocked salmon. Smelt are caught by dip netting and winter ice fishing. Some of the best opportunities are in the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, and Finger Lakes tributaries. Distribution of rainbow smelt in NY state. Dark dots represent where actual samples of rainbow smelt were taken.
White dots represent historic distributions.
A 230 KB image of the rainbow smelt is also available for download .