Smelt

Park point was putting out last night!

I will not be able to go until Friday

I watched quite a few netters last night on the Wisconsin-side pier. It looked like they were dumping some fairly full nets.

You sure don’t hear about that .uch anymore. I sure do miss the good old legion smelt fry.

I picked up a bunch last year. A little goes a long ways. I forgot how much I enjoyed one meal of them a year. ONE MEAL.
Ask my wife about the cleaning process!

Never had smelt before. I think they have a big smelt fry this weekend or at least its coming up in Duelm at Jack and Jims.

CaptainMusky wrote:

big smelt fry this weekend or at least its coming up in Duelm at Jack and Jims.

That’s a place I haven’t heard about in awhile! Used to love going there when I lived in Central MN, great spot!

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
big smelt fry this weekend or at least its coming up in Duelm at Jack and Jims.

That’s a place I haven’t heard about in awhile! Used to love going there when I lived in Central MN, great spot!

It certainly is! I havent been there in years either, but man are they always busy especially during Lent.

I have had enough smelt in my life to not have it again

I could go for some of them. Used to get them alot. My dad and his buddies used to go up for that. They also make good river turtle bait.

Most fun ice fishing I ever had was catching smelt @ Grindstone lake in the 1970’s when you could fish 2 lines with up to 3 hooks on each. We would use whole corn for bait.
Many times we would set the hook and have 3 hooked.
Could fill a 5 gallon pail within an hour or so if the bite was hot.

Youbetcha wrote:

I have had enough smelt in my life to not have it again

I’m pretty much on board with you. I od’d on smelt a couple times and haven’t had any desire for them again. Ma will order them if we’re in an area where they’re featuring a fry.

Serious question. Is it smelt or “shmelt”?

I cook up 2-3 gallons every year at our campsite. I also have a bunch that I use for trading stock in the neighborhood.

Fun stuff!

I haven’t had it since I was a kid because my uncle used to dip. I remember really liking it. I need to find a fry or meet up with someone who does it. Would like to see if it’s as good as I remember.

I’m on the other side, love Smelt! Always order it if I see it at a restaurant, and it’s one of my favorite stops at the state fair.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

I haven’t had it since I was a kid because my uncle used to dip. I remember really liking it. I need to find a fry or meet up with someone who does it. Would like to see if it’s as good as I remember.

All the local fire stations here have a smelt fry every year at around this time. I’ve honestly never tried it

I remember having it as a kid, I think we ran up and hit the run once but I was super young and don’t really recall much. I would try it again.

We used to have a killer smelt fry at our Legion in Eden Valley. A group of guys would go up and dip net hundreds of pounds. Then another group would spend a day cleaning them, then the next group would fry em up. We all had our jobs… I was always in the fry group… man they were tasty when drinking cold ones !!!

My uncle used to smelt around Duluth back in the 60s when I was 6-8 years old. Bring some to our house and he and my dad would clean them in the laundry tub with scissors. I remember a lot of eggs. I don’t remember eating any.

Had some smelt tacos at a place in Saint Paul a few years ago. Kept putting more jalapeños on and it was never enough to compensate. Not my cup o tea but dipping looks pretty fun.

I haven’t been smelting for all of 15 years, but the boys have been bugging me to do it again.

When I got home tonight we looked at the wind forecast, tomorrow night looks like the best.

I said we’d hike down the beach with some buckets, waders and our homemade seine.

Hank said, “Dad, why don’t we just beach a boat and spend the night, then coho fish on Saturday?”

These kids come up with some next level $hit and now that’s the new plan

We could get away from the crowds and make a ripping beach fire, and not have to carry a bunch of crap either lol

I don’t care if we catch 10 smelt or 10,000, it will still be a blast lol

Stay tuned

B-man,
Just a word of caution…. fires on Park Point are “frowned upon” by DL PD.
I’m not positive if they are technically 100% illegal or not (the guys I smelted with said it was), but when we used to go down to the “tot-lot” and take our Christianson nets down and fill coolers with smelt, we never had a fire going.
That said, when I first learned about smelting in Hurley in 1986 we went down to the mouth of the Montreal River and it was an absolute all-out party with huge fires and parties on both the WI and MI side of the rivermouth.
I remember the days of smelting til midnight, using scissors to clean smelt at home in the garage til 6am, and then going to work.
Most of the Super One grocery stores up here will have smelt (cleaned or not) for sale for the next few weeks.

There must be 50 people netting tonight on the Wisconsin side of the canal.

Ever see the ones big food distributors sell? About size of a fathead. Actually look like a block of frozen minnows, super small.

I will be down at Park Point tonight!(Friday) I think things will be jammed pack this weekend.

Shannon

sand-burr wrote:

I will be down at Park Point tonight!(Friday) I think things will be jammed pack this weekend.

Shannon

How far do people walk from the access’s along the beach??

I was planning on beaching the Grady between WI lot 1 and Schafer Beach (almost a mile between them) to get away from people.

But guessing I’m not the only one with this idea lol

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I had them many years ago as a teenager at a smelt fry up in Duluth and wasn’t real impressed, but I need to give it a legitimate try again.

Not sure I can answer that question, I will be more over by the airport on the MN side.

They are running heavy over in Ashland too. Usually they run there about a week before Duluth but looks like the runs are hitting about the same time this year.

Nothing too exciting so far fish wise, but the Boys are living it up

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