Originally Posted by
Sweet Willie
anchovies & herring are salt water fish.
I think you are referring to smelt.
I've only seem them netted along the shores of Lake Michigan.
I thought herring spawned in fresh water. I used to fish for shad in the Connecticut river and feel like I saw almost as many herring as shad.
Neither could be legally netted although I can understand the temptation. They're not very interested in feeding when all they're thinking about it reproducing. You watch hundreds, thousands even, of fish swimming under the boat without a single bite. Shad darts are said to provoke strikes out of annoyance rather than hunger. I can't say I ever saw anyone catch a herring, if that's what they were.
I looked and they are blueback herring. They spawn in fresh water and are endangered. The count at the fish elevator went from a high of 600,000 to a low of 21 in 2006. Eek!