SMELTS

Checked 3 spots last night and there was nothing seen. I covered Lake Nip and South side of Trout.
Someone else checked North side of Trout. Zippo

But apparently, they are running in Sunridge and Magnetawan.

The males are showing up sparsely from Trout lake.

95% males 5% females.

That's interesting. Is this the common pattern? I.e., mostly males show up first and then the females come later? And are the larger ones males or females (or there are no difference)? I am assuming you were still able get some even if the run isn't at or near the peak...since you were able to tell if they were males or females (assuming you cleaned some to find out).

I cleaned 150.
I'm not a smelt psychologist. I have no idea why the males show up first?

Like the human condition. The males sit down around a bar then the women dance around the pole. No men....no need for women. Lol

Don't need to know the WHYS of men showing up first and sit down at bars and then the women dance around on poles Just want to know if that happens all/most/some of the time.
And I think that human (bar) condition is different from most....it's the men who follow where women go. I think in the human case, we are much more messed up than wildlife.

I don't know if there are actual studies of this in literature. But, yes, from observation when I used to fish for smelt on the shores of Lake O and Simcoe. First a couple of smaller males would show up, then sometimes 1 hr later or more, small schools of males would come in, and finally during the full spawn, large schools of females, mixed in with larger males show up. If I were to hypothesize on a guess, the first ones to show up, the smaller males are like scouts checking out the spawning area. Then a larger school of males shows up and checks out the spawning area to ensure the conditions are right and they may release some milt or even pheromones into the water, to signal to the large school of females to come in and begin the spawn,. That's my guess to why it occurs like this..

In general, yes. The females are much larger and fatter than the males. Although you get large males as well, but not as chubby. You don't have to clean them to know. The males release milt and the females spew eggs, upon capture. One last effort to procreate before the inevitable. The early scouts are almost always, small skinny males.

Cheers..

Thanks for that. Interesting to hear about the patterns you observed (will keep it in mind as I try to figure them out around here). I just can't remember that far back when I was kid and doing the same on Lake O tribs. Though I do remember the milt and eggs spraying everywhere when we grabbed them (those eggs are pretty sticky...that turned me off smelts as a kid for many, many years.

That's as good an explanation as they come without being a smelt I suppose.