Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Smelt Fry - a Wisconsin favorite

I used scissors to snip the head off and up the belly. Ran my thumb through to push out the guts and done.

Used to dip for them near Tawas at the singing bridge. Only really got into them one time out of years of trying. The runs of yesteryear are largely gone now due to over harvesting and other factors.

Leaky waders, Coleman lanterns and sick days are old smelt dipping tradition. Biting the head off the first smelt of the season is as old a tradition as is rinsing the taste out your mouth with a lake temperature beer.

Funny you should post this right now. A friend who lives in iowa who I talk to every few weeks calls me yesterday and asked me if I had ever had smelt. A friend of his who I have met, hell of a guy by the way a southern gentleman whom was born in Wisconsin by accident lol, fryed a butt load of smelt and served it with rye bread and onion. My buddy knobby said it was kinda fishy tasting but with the rye bread and onion it was great. I gotta say I would like to try it. I tried pickled herring when visiting up there and lets just say I will stick to southern style deep fried crappie with fried taters and corn bread.

so you don't want to try lutefisk the I take it?

We dipped out of the St Clair river. If the run was early we dodged ice flows. I never see anyone dipping anymore.

Many times I have seen hooligan here so thick you could just stick a hand into the river and grab a bunch of them. It has not gotten any worse... A net will produce a 5-gallon bucket with every pass when the run is strong. And they run at least twice the size of the MI smelt I remember

Smelt numbers have plummetet on the bay of Green Bay, and shore dipping and seining on the shores of Lake Michigan is nothing like its hay days.
Smelt are not native to the Great Lakes(and neither are alewife) but both have up and down cycles and both are greatly affected by our salmon populations.
That said, smelt are still taken in the deeper waters commercially , they still taste great and are cheap. Back in the day....what a party! Seining at Sugar Creek and Stoney Creek on the lake side were great times, roaring fires, tons of beer, girls loved to come and share the fire, beer, ahem ,snuggling.
Turkey fryers in concept hadn t reached these parts back then, but we deep fried them in beer batter(eggs-beer-Heni Penny peppered flour), awesome.

I started smelt fishing in 1967. Put a galvanized stock tank in back of 1/2 ton pick-up--fill it up with grain-belt beer and ice. Drive up to University of Minn pick-up a bunch of guys and head to the north shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Two Harbors.
Almost made enough money to pay for the beer.

1990--price hit 60 cents a pound--dipped 45,000 lbs
2002--took 66,000 lbs--price was 20 cents lb

We still get a good run here on Lake Nipigon but an ice cream pail is enough for a feed and a 5 gallon pail for pike bait.
If it warms up they may run in a month or so.

Yep, just like that.

When I was a little kid I remember sitting at the table, the whole family with little knives just going to town quickly cleaning bushels of smelt for the fire hall smelt fry, and also to put up in the freezer for ourselves.

It's way too early for us here in MN.

Hell, I'm not so sure we're done MAKING ice yet, not sure if the thaw will ever come.

Used to dip for them on Nuns creek in da up. Eating out every meal, staying up all night dippin' for the smelt, playin' in the creek by day, sleeping under the stars with no tent, good times.

I remember a trip to Door County Wi. back in the 70's. A bunch of us were going to near the tip of the Peninsula hoping for trout or salmon. Our nets were huge; capable of handling 20-30 pound salmon. Crossed a bridge and needed a pee break. Someone shined a flashlight into the creek and all we saw were black backs and silvery flashes. Think we did 3 or 4 dips with the nets we had and filled a couple 50-55 quart coolers. Slept under cedar trees that night, fished the lake and bays in the morning. No trout or salmon, but a buttload of smelt. Stopped at a couple bars when back home to round up cleaners and cleaned and partied all night long and had smelt for breakfast and many meals to come.

I have not eaten Smelt's since the mid 1960's my father loved to eat them. This makes me think I should make a trip out to WI just for it. The older I get the more I wish to relive my youth. Opening day of fishing season saw me on the same rock in the same pool were I caught my very first trout, Some 53 years ago, The pool and river had not changed much, In many ways I am still that little boy at heart. I even fished with an Old Fenwick Glass Fly rod, with a Pflugger Medalist reel - Not the rod I had for the first one, but I got this one three years latter.

We did real well on the Cowlitz this year

It had been a few years for me and I had forgot how much I like these little guys.

I love those fishy little morsels...dippin off shore is long gone, but they are widely available in Great Lakes area restaurants this time of year, and fish markets...deep fried in a dusting of seasoned flour, they are crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside with a distinct fishy flavor, drench in lemon juice and slather in tartar...

I know guys used to dip the Rapid River up in Little Bay De Noc. Smelting is a big social event. Good eats, and a few cold adult beverages. What more could a man ask for?

nuthin