The smelt thing had me intrigued,so I emailed M.r Timothy Wilson who is the fisheries biologist for PA disctrict 1 which includes Pymatuning. This was his response.
Thanks for your questions. This is the second instance of someone telling me they were catching rainbow smelt in Pymatuning Reservoir this year. I will answer your questions in the order they were asked.
1. Rainbow smelt are a coldwater fish and should not be able to survive a typical summer in Pymatuning Reservoir. The only inland waters in Pennsylvania that can support naturally reproducing smelt populations are large reservoirs that thermally stratify in summer and maintain cold oxygenated water below the thermocline. Pymatuning Reservoir does thermally stratify in summer, however, the depths below the thermocline quickly go anoxic and are unable to support fish life as dissolved oxygen levels fall to near zero.
2. In 30+ years of sampling in Pymatuning Reservoir and Pymatuning Sanctuary not a single rainbow smelt has ever been observed. So, I think it is highly unlikely that these fish are rainbow smelt. However, when it comes to biology, I have learned to ‘never say never’. ‘Bait Bucket Biologists’ continually move fish around Pennsylvania hoping to improve the fishing in their waters. It is illegal and normally has many negative unintended consequences. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that some smelt were introduced and survived to be caught, but I doubt it. More likely, the anglers are misidentifying these fish. To be 100% certain, I would have to see a good quality photograph.
3. In reviewing the historic catch data from Pymatuning, I looked for other species of fish that look similar to smelt. The best candidates would be spottail shiners or brook silversides, both of which occur in great abundance in Pymatuning and in Presque Isle Bay. Both species are key components of the forage base in Pymatuning, along with gizzard shad. The key defining characteristics between the three species is that the spottail shiners have a black spot at the base of the tail fin (hence the name spottail) and the rainbow smelt don’t. The rainbow smelt have teeth. Neither the brook silverside nor the spottail shiner has teeth. I doubt they were brook silversides because their mouth is so small that I can’t imagine them being caught by hook and line. So my guess is that they were catching spottail shiners.
Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or have a picture of these fish.
Sincerely,
Timothy A. Wilson
Fisheries Biologist
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission
13240 Hartstown Road
Linesville, PA 16424
814-683-1036
So if anybody catches what they think is a smelt again try to take a good quality picture of it. Mr Wilson would love to see it.