BOWDOINHAM — By all indications, Derek Saxon picked a good year to finally take over what used to be Jim’s Camps.

The parking lot was full at what is now D’s Camps, the 18 smelt shacks lined up on the Cathance River were near full occupancy, and the pails some fisherman had been lugging up the rickety wooden gangway after fishing a tide were full of small silvery smelts.

Jim McPherson had been after Saxon, his longtime friend and off-and-on employee, to take over his smelt fishing operation for years, so the now-74-year-old could pass on his legacy and the hard work that goes along with the seasonal occupation.

A STRONG START

Thanks to this season’s cold temperatures, most smelt shack operators got an early and strong start to their seasons.

In recent years, most seasons have been cut short due to the lack of enough ice to put their rental shacks out on the rivers.

Early reports on the catch indicate not just the shacks and businesses came back in a big way, so far this season, so have the small silvery rainbow smelt.

“They have been fortunate to be out as early as they are, it’s been really tough the last handful of years, this has been a really big turnaround for them,” said Mike Brown, a fisheries scientist with the state Department of Marine Resources. “Folks are happy, excited to be out there early, to be catching fish.”

Brown said for the last several years, no fishermen have come anywhere close to hitting the daily catch limit. In the winter, that’s one gallon of smelts per person per day.

But this season already Brown has heard of fisherman hitting their daily limit on more than a few occasions.

Saxon said fishing parties have been leaving with as many as 170 to 200 smelts among them.

BORN ON THE WATER

Brothers Jeff and Bill Morrill haven’t been so lucky. On a recent Wednesday evening they had nothing but empty pails to show for their efforts, despite having multiple lines tied to both sides of the shack baited and in the water, as well as short jigging fishing poles each was working.

Even so, the nearly lifelong fishermen appeared to be having a good time, bantering with each other in their heated shack while the outside temperature hovered around the mid-teens. They grew up helping their dad catch fish, including smelt, on the Royal River in Yarmouth to sell at the family’s seafood shop.

“It’s good to get out of the house, plus it’s tradition, one of the things you grew up with,” Jeff Morrill, of Gray, said. “It can be 90% boredom and then 10% excitement. You have to be attentive.”

“We were born on the water,” Bill Morrill, of Durham, said of the brothers’ shared love for fishing. He fishes about 50 lobster traps in the summer.

That love was not soured, even when earlier this season he fell through the ice up to his shoulders at Baker’s, another smelt shack operation on the Kennebec River in Pittston. A shack had been moved, exposing the hole in the ice, which he unknowingly stepped into. He caught himself on the ice, avoiding being swept under it and was able to climb out.

Rather than calling it a night , Bill Morrill went to his truck, where he had a dry set of clothes. He changed and returned to his shack to fish the rest of the tide.

The commercial smelt shack industry is focused in central Maine, where the Kennebec River and its tributaries that flow into it make up Merrymeeting Bay. The area is known for its diverse and vibrant habitat. About a half-dozen smelt shack rental operations, listed on a state’s smelt fishing website, can be found on the Kennebec, Eastern, Cathance, and Abagadasset rivers, from Bowdoinham to Randolph.

“(Merrymeeting Bay) provides a good habitat for smelt,” Brown said. “It really provides everything they need in good amounts.”.

Sharon James, who has worked in her family’s James Eddy smelt camp operation for more than six decades, said so far this season, the fishing has been good, a welcome improvement from recent seasons.

“The fishing has been good, we’ve had a lot of people come back a couple of times,” James said.

James Eddy, on the Eastern River in Dresden, has 20 shacks out. James said they have a good foot of ice, plenty more than the 6 inches or so needed to put camps out. They’re booked out for the next couple of weekends, but have spots open after that and have rentals available on weekdays.

SHARED TRADITIONS

Four friends from southern Maine shared a shack at D’s Camps recently, drinking Miller Lites in cans, each stationed in a corner, watching for their lines to move indicating they had a fish.

Sam Kim, a U.S. Army veteran from Westbrook, said they usually bring steak or other tasty food to cook on the woodstoves that are in each of the camps, fueled by slabs of wood stacked up next to the camps’ parking lot.

He said most people he’s encountered at smelt camps are friendly, many visiting from shack to shack.

The group hadn’t yet caught any smelt on that particular day, although they planned to fish into the night. Kim said he likes to eat smelt in tacos. He takes the guts out but eats the rest, including the skeleton, which some people remove.

His friend Maisa Akanhay, of Portland, said one night several years ago he and his fellow fisherman caught hundreds of smelt in one session. He cooks a few for himself, deep fried and served in a hot dog bun with tartar sauce, but he gives most of what he catches away to his friends and family.

“I just love the sport, love getting out in nature,” Akanhay said. “It’s good to get out of the house, get away from the television, away from the wife, and it’s good to be with the fellas. It’s just awesome to be out here. It’s almost like tailgating.”

While some fisherman go with their friends, giving themselves a break from their regular home life while having a couple of beers on the ice, others bring their kids along for some family time.

Saxon joked that on a recent weekend day there were so many kids around, many playing with kids from the neighboring shacks, running around and having snowball fights that the smelt camp looked like a daycare.

One night last week at D’s Camps, John O’Brien and his daughter Charlie, 12, and son Ollie, 5, of Lisbon, were smelt fishing for the first time, with guidance from O’Brien’s friend Bob Lawler, of Lisbon Falls, who helped show them how to fish.

O’Brien and Lawler are both veterans and came to fish at D’s Camps on Wednesday because the business lets veterans fish for half-price on that day.

Saxon said the fishing seems to have slowed down from its fast start, but he hopes more abundant runs of smelt will return.

McPherson, who chatted with Saxon on the ice recently and still comes around his former camps, said after 50 years he was ready to give up the daily hard work that includes chipping out holes in the ice, cutting and hauling wood, and managing the business.

“It’s definitely a lot of work involved with this, it was time to let someone else have some fun,” he said, laughing.