Rainbow smelt are an important sport fish in the winter as well as the primary source of food for walleye and salmonids. Maintaining the balance between forage fish like smelt and species like walleye, salmon and lake trout is critical to a healthy population of fish. Each summer fisheries biologists trawl portions of the lake to get an estimate of the forage fish populations. The information gathered is just one more piece in the puzzle that determines stocking and daily limit numbers on Lake Champlain.

• NY Dept. of Environmental
  Conservation: Common Prey Fish
  of New York
• VT Dept. of Environmental
  Conservation: Alewife

• Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept.:
  Alewife Confirmed in Lake Champlain

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