When I was a Fishcop on the Cowlitz in the 70's and early 80's, I looked for an increased abundance of seals in the Columbia to indicate the pending arrival of the annual smelt run. I watched the over harvest take place, as everyone with half a brain predicted. Now what do we have? No smelt. Changing ecosystem. The incredibly huge runs brought out the worst in people. There is a certain fascination of people dipping a net into the river and finding it full of fish. Once in awhile someone would dip up a steelhead or spring king. On a good night in the mid 70's a good smelt dipper might get 20 pounds in a dip. Greed would set in in too many instances. In one case I wrote tickets to two guys from Seattle who had taken more than two thousand pounds of smelt. (Yes, 2,000) My patrol truck would hardly steer with all those in the back of it. Smelt make good sturgeon bait. I miss the carnival atmosphere of the big runs of old. If you're seeing increased bird activity it is from dead or spawned out smelt indicating the run had peaked. I had always heard that the water temperature that lured smelt into the Cowlitz was 46 degrees. Seems about right when correlated with a warm rain.