THUNDER BAY – It is spring, along the Lake Superior shorelines, that means smelt fishing. Rivers and streams heading into the Great Lake become, at night, gathering points for smelt fishers.
Reports are coming in that the smelts are starting to run.
It is hard to tell how this year’s smelt run will go. In 2013, the long delay of winter and the freezing ice that was jamming our harbour and river mouths for the past month had caused a backlog of fish inside Lake Superior that broke like a dam of fish once the warm weather rapidly thawed the ice jam causing hundreds of millions of smelts to enter the McKenzie river all at the same time.
The thick ice on Lake Superior this year could bring a similar smelt fishing season.
It will all depend on how the conditions play out. For many the annual smelt fishing season, a Thunder Bay ritual is underway.
