It s a dirty shame to clarify the misconception because it s a lot more glamorous than the truth. The plain truth is, smelt migrate to the shore from deep water when the water temperature rises enough to trigger their fierce spawning urge. They do run sooner in Chicago s Burnham Harbor than here, but only because the water temperature warms sooner in that southern clime. They re coming in to shallow water, mostly after dark, to deposit tiny eggs that will stick to the gravel on the lake s bottom and hatch in about a week. Then the young head straight for deep water.
Smelt fishing is dead opposite to the busyness of fly-fishing.
You stand around, drinking and smoking, you talk as loud as you want and play oldies on your boom box. You are not going to spook hundreds of thousands of little fish hellbent on increasing their number. The water draining out of the net and the scatter of silver fish in it are magical in the Coleman s stark light. You are part of the darkness along the dark lake and now you have captured quicksilver. You reach down with your long-handled strainer scoop and retrieve the fish in your net, dropping them in the white plastic bucket at your feet.