Smelt
Also called Rainbow smelt
Smelt are slender, schooling baitfish that live in cold freshwater and anadromous systems. They are a key forage for trout, salmon, and lake trout in many lakes and some rivers.
- Group
- Baitfish
- Category
- Entomology & forage
- Level
- Intermediate
- Water
- Freshwater
Last updated
What Smelt means
Smelt are baitfish, long and narrow, usually silver with a darker back. In many regions the name points to rainbow smelt, and in others to different smelt species, but anglers use “smelt” as a general forage label.
They spend much of their time in open water, moving in schools. In lakes they often suspend over deep water and slide shallow to feed or spawn, and in river-connected systems they may run upstream seasonally.
Smelt imitations are typically tied as streamers with a thin profile and a bright belly, often with a little flash. Patterns that suggest smelt are usually fished in the water column rather than tight to the bottom.
Why it matters on the water
If a lake or tailwater has smelt, trout and salmon frequently key on a specific silhouette, narrow, pale, and fast. A bulky sculpin-style streamer can get ignored even when fish are feeding hard.
Smelt also change where to look for predators. Instead of banks and structure, the better water is often over depth, along drop-offs, or wherever schools get pinned by current, wind, or light levels. That pushes tackle and approach toward longer casts, controlled depth, and steady, swimming retrieves.
Read next
- BaitfishSmall forage fish that predators eat, like minnows, shad, smelt, and mullet. In fly fishing, “baitfish” also means the food source a streamer is meant to imitate.
- Lake troutA lake trout is a large char that lives in cold lakes and deep reservoirs and often feeds on fish. It’s also called laker or mackinaw.
- Sinking lineA sinking line is a fly line built to sink below the surface so you can fish deeper without adding as much weight.
- StreamerA streamer is a fly meant to be moved to imitate a baitfish, leech, sculpin, or crayfish. It is often fished with strips, swings, or a steady retrieve, but it can also be dead-drifted.