They came with small nets and large nets. Nets of gray, white, and pink. They came in chest waders, sneakers, and with buckets in hand. Men, women, boys, girls, families, and friends.
This was the scene Thursday afternoon and evening as hundreds, if not thousands, of people from near and far converged on the lower Sandy River for the rare, one-day opportunity to harvest eulachon smelt, a small migratory fish at the center of a rich tradition stretching back centuries.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) opened the seven-hour fishery after determining that enough smelt were returning to the river on the final leg of their migratory journey…