Smelt fishing…….The talk about smelt got me thinking about how we used to take in the annual smelt spawn every Spring. Without fail, from the time I was 10 until about 19, the neighbors would gather all their smelting gear and load their truck and trailer with 10 gallon milk cans and head north. Sometimes 3-4 vehicles would follow behind with the sole purpose of striking it rich like a bunch of gold miners from years past.
Usually we would go out of Duluth, MN and hit the rivers flowing into Lake Superior. We had many to draw off of; often the common denominator was that if one area was hot, the others were also. Every once in a while, one river would out-produce some of the others and it just added to the chase. We would always fish them at night, although in later years, we found mornings to also be good.
We usually used dip nets; often we could fill a five gallon bucket in a dip and a half. Other times, we would go to the mouth of Superior in WI and pull the big net. I don’t remember the exact length, but it seems 35’- 40’ rings a bell. When we seined, I remember we used the larger mesh which allowed all the smaller males to go through but caught the bigger females. Having 20 to 30 gallons in the net in a single haul was labor intensive. I remember being totally wiped out after pulling the net 8-10 times a night.
The atmosphere up there was that of a bunch of guys turned loose from their wives for a couple of nights of drinking and raising holy hell. There were fights, copious drinking, and many women looking to make a few bucks. For a 15-18 year old kid it was an indescribable experience that my Grandpa loved to hear about and my Grandma shuttered to think about.
Many nights over the course of 9 or 10 years we made 150-200 gallon hauls. Eventually the stress and strain of the work and excitement forced some of the older fellas to call it a memory. I, along with a childhood friend, took over the best we could. All the neighbors would inquire as to when we were going and many of them would flip us a 10 spot to help with gas. We pretty much just went with the dip nets, partially because of the work that making a haul entailed, and also the up keep the big net needed in maintenance . One other prime reason was that the rivers were much kinder when the wind blew. On the big lake, smelters often disappeared when the waves hauled them out to sea. Some got lucky and made it back to shore and some didn’t.
But as usual, people wrecked everything. Too much drinking, too much crime, and eventually the rivers were closed. About the same time, the smelt numbers started dwindling. I’m not sure what the main problem was; however, many blamed the lake trout for the decline. Smelt numbers didn’t amount to much until the lamprey took its toll on lake trout. As the lake trout population declined, smelt numbers increased at an unbelievable rate peaking in the 60’s and 70’s. Once the lake trout numbers rebounded the smelt numbers diminished. Of course, let’s not forget commercial fisherman helped to reduce the numbers.
At any rate, for us smelt fishing dried up and like the old fellas before us, smelting just became a memory. I used to love nothing more than returning at dawn, cleaning up a few, dipping them in batter and frying them up. When straight out of the lake, and into the hot oil they would roll themselves over, like a dog rolling onto his back. Get a plate, grab the salt shaker, and open a beer. That was a breakfast to behold.
WS
