Strobes/ Smelt/ Oahe

Flashing lights may not stop bait fish flushing

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) _ Bright, flashing strobe lights like those
musicians use on stage have been shown to repel smelt — a tiny
bait fish whose main job is to serve as lunch for walleyes.
But biologists with the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks
Department say it might not be practical to use the lights to keep
smelt from being flushed through the water intakes at Oahe Dam near Pierre.
Attaching strobe lights to the intakes would cost about
ten-thousand dollars each, and many would be needed to cover the entire intake structure.
The agency says the lights probably wouldn’t be worth the cost
if they were needed only every 30 years or so when the water levels are high enough to flush the smelt.

This post has been up here a while, but I wonder what problems are caused by the smelt flushing through. I know that the dead and dazed smelt coming through in the tail race make for some great food for the walleyes, trout, and cats on Sharpe.

CR

That is what caused the problem before no bait fish for eyes to eat!!! They are just getting it straighten out now.

At times the SD Missouri River reservoirs can approach 25% of the the entire fish population being walleye believe it or not.

I forget the exact year but in say the late 90’s roughly there was great walleye fishing, great smelt populations (at that time there were few if any shad in Oahe believe it or not, that has been a recent change) and overall a good fisheries balance and a lots of year classes and health walleye.

They opened up the dam and the smelt washed through, almost wiping out the prey population. Smelt don’t live well further south than Oahe.

I can remember 28″ walleye weighing UNDER 5#’s at one point. Yes, true. It was sickening a few years. When this happened fishing hours tremendously dropped further exacarbating the problem.

So… The SD GFP opened up the fishing to get the predators down, it took quite awhile but has worked. In fact I believe at one point it was maybe 14 walleyes/day even give or take. The lake seems to be in great balance now and the walleye, smallies, whiteys etc., we caught this past week were robust. Maybe not the piggie footballs I’ve seen some years where their head looked about 1/2 the size the body required but they were very very healthy.

Hope that helps. Smelt, by the way, have a huge value as a feed source, they are a very caloric/high energy/high fat food.

Todd,

Thanks for the explanation. Now I get it. They want to keep the smelt away from the intakes to keep them in Oahe.

I’m a Ft. Pierre native and have seen the best and worst of times on Oahe. Sounds like things are good now and I’ll be there in a couple weeks to see for myself.

Curt