Seine netting used to be practised on the Thames (below, above Putney Bridge), and it was recently performed near Hammersmith Bridge (above). This yielded fry of perch, dace, flounder, stickleback, bream, but no smelt. Smelt, once on of the main catches on the Thames, is the subject of an ongoing project by the Zoological Society of London'. My involvement in the project led me to believe that smelt disappeared around the same time that whitebait became popular, and has led to my writing Whitebait and the Thames Fisheries, which should be out in the autumn.
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