Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ice fishing, Japanese style

Interesting little shelters they have. All for some little fish. But I love smelt and wish I had some now that I've seen the video.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3019101/?cid=wohk-fb-org_vod_fishingcazy_ioi-202003-001%3Fcid%3Dwohk-fb-org_vod_fc_ii-202010-001&fbclid=IwAR0ZE3l2ee8IpQ76RjLw8t5FPhv6lcDArTj5xthKK_MkTfvgQ70W3VnIBGg

All that for a bait fish?

And I thought Ice fishing for walleyes was hardcore.

You ever have some fried smelt? I like them better than walleye I think (although I'm partial to almost any fish).

That video got me to thinking I might want to head over to the coast next year for some surf smelt fishing. But they don't get them like those Japanese folks. You get buckets of them. With a net, not no little tiny hooks!

Still have my old smelt net,used to get them by the bucket here back in the 80"s
Can still get them at the market or online,delish

There's a Japanese fellow that frequents a US website dedicated to ice fishing. He posts some very interesting pictures. They do things differently over there.

Yep, we used to fill buckets full off Seneca lake when I was in high school. They were some good eating!

As far as eating fried fish, agree with Geno. A meal of fresh, properly prepared smelt is hard to beat. Love them, especially those taken from the salt.

I know folks here that buy an extra freezer just for hooligan... and prefer them over all other fish.

They are good fish, really good about once a year...

I get bigger fish that that from Calcutta.

Pacific smelt have a lovely warm glow ever since the nuke plant meltdown. They are to die for.

You would have to be pretty hungry to eat bait

Yes Sir,We didn't hit Seneca as much as Naples creek off of Ca.lake,but mostly out either Port bay or Maxwell off of Ontario.

Bastid!


What'd you folks use for coating them? Rice flour? Some sort of tempura batter? Just in case I get over to the coast for some netting. I've used Italian bread crumbs, of course.

Is it the size of the fish?
Or how fishy it smells?

Mmmn?

I wonder if they have an advisory on them.

Just regular old flour, bud. If we were deep frying, then would've used panko a la tempura.

The fresh ocean run smelt we get here in winter smell, believe it or not, a bit like cucumber. Not fishy at all.

As far as the bait comments, actually, many types of smelt are indeed used all the time as bait. So yeah, smelt are bait. For those who don't know a thing about fresh ocean run smelt and eating them and how wonderful they are though are, well, your loss.

The world of fine finned eats doesn't begin and end with the likes of canned tuna sandwiches on white bread, or in a casserole. For some of us, anyway...

"computer program won't let me type name of nuke plant' Daiichi has a serious problem with cesium 134 in groundwater leakage ongoing. But "authorities" assure us it not confirmed to be affecting marine life...although there may be a hotspot roughly 1200 miles west of Eureka. "At this time, there is no cause for alarm". The Humboldt current for the last millennia, at least, comes from Japan to the west coast, and in 2011 the coast was showing C134 at elevated levels. Accurate data is scarce, the technology for measuring rad levels is relatively new...we don't have a baseline to tell what "elevated " means. Elevated from what? I don't think anybody knows, I sure as hell don't. I do know about 60% of the sport charter industry is gone. No bait shoals, means no fish, means no fishermen, means no charters. That is a BIG leap to make...but something is wrong in the western Pacific. If we have members in the Coos Bay, Astoria, Westport area, I'd sure love to hear their opinions.

The hoolies I’ve had did not impress enough to name the walk to dip them.

Highest and best use? Candles!

To some in certain places, like the Midwest k_g, fish are supposed to taste like nothing, except perhaps whatever spices are in the coating they're fried in.

Funny that fish can smell like vegetables, eh? Seems some folks can find schools of sunfish by finding the cucumber smell. Or maybe it's watermelon?

Thanks for the info re: flour, just like trout up in the Sierras when I was a young man.

Eating bait? Well, I'd hate to count the number of sardines I've eaten over the year, along with a few mackerel, and the best bait in the world for largemouth and inland striped bass................planted rainbow trout!

Yep, to be sure, some folks have some interesting ideas about how certain things should taste. And for lots of inlanders/landlockeders, it often seems that things like farmed tilapia are at the pinnacle of the delish-fish spectrum. King of the cardboard in both taste and texture, that one. Ate a couple bites once. Never again. Give me a simple piece of broiled or smoked mackerel, bluefish, herring or any oily fish any day. You know, the kind that actually tastes like, well, fish...

Absolutely on using smells to locate fish. You can sometimes get into water when searching for stripers on the coast, and you can 100% smell when fish are there below. Cucumber and watermelon are the two most common smells associated with fish around here. I read somewhere that certain molecules from the fish--either the fish we target themselves or that which they are pursuing and eating--are released and rise in the water column to the surface where the smell can be picked up by we two leggers.