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DANG - it took you long enough!
I kept waiting to see Ms KG's smiling face! smile

Glad you both had a good time, Leighton.


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never tasted one of those, let alone smelt them. smile


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Looks like 3 or 4 would make a meal with veggies and fries.


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I remember as a kid going up on lake supperior with family and using these metal dipnets for catching smelt, the dads would scoop and dump into buckets, us kids had to manage them after that point. been close to 40 years since I did that, I remember them being delicious.
I have a few recipes for different tartar sauces, my favorite uses mom's homemade green tomato relish, I can send you a jar if you want to try it. 1/2 mayo, 1/2 ketchup with a dollup of relish. yum yum


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Originally Posted by joken2

Many years ago the annual spring smelt runs in Lake Michigan were a big deal. Evenings the piers along Chicago's shores would be lined with people of all ages and sexes setting up for a night of gill netting smelt. They used a "trolley" system to raise and lower gill nets. Galvanized washtubs filled to the brim with smelt were common. The glow from Coleman lanterns and camp stoves lit up the piers end to end with a few burning barrels scattered along the way to help knock the chill off. Last I heard smelt runs no longer happen through there anymore but many folks still set up anyway just for the camaraderie.


Yep, that was a big scouting thing we did growing up there. Not to mention it was families of all races and no one was rioting or getting shot or beaten. Coleman stoves were brought and rolling the smelt in corn meal, salt and flour and eating them 5 minutes after they were caught. Lot of good memories there right under the John Hancock tower.


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Just had smelt the other night, I think they were from south america, they were good fried up! My dad and I'd go to PT. Peele ca. Dad had an old buddy that was a Frenchie, he had a big sence net. We get garbage can full was fun but alot of work the next day cleaning them! Mom and Grandma would start cooking in the afternoon, alot of folks would show up to eat and take some home. To be able to do that one more time would be great with them all are long gone now! I have also caught them on hook and line they the ice.


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The old guys in Washington ain't no pilgrims at the smelt harvest, they'd net them, gib them, brine them and smoke the hell out of them and pack them and process in mason jars, to be given out sparingly when beer was being served. A Pacific Northwest delicacy. The fish take on a beautiful gold color from the smoke and look as good as they taste.


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Quit with the PB and go to Postimage.com

Free service, very easy to use.

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Originally Posted by DMc
Great pictures. Thx for sharing!


Most welcome. Sorry it wasn't a call out, troll or political thread. I like to try to inject some outdoorsy stuff here on occasion. I guess I'm kind of weird like that... wink

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Originally Posted by mark shubert
DANG - it took you long enough!
I kept waiting to see Ms KG's smiling face! smile

Glad you both had a good time, Leighton.


Ha. Thanks, and we did Mark. I agree that her smile and generally wonderful demeanor is something else, too. And she's one hell of a fish cutter. No one remarked on it, but when I said that we should do a batch of smelt, she took it upon herself to clean them. Normally that's one of my jobs. With smelt I normally just bread and fry, with no heading, gilling or gutting. Not only did she head them and gut them, but removed the spine and butterflied them. She also separated the roe, which I really enjoy. To all the youngbloods out there not yet married, I have but one suggestion: choose WISELY!

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Originally Posted by jaguartx
Looks like 3 or 4 would make a meal with veggies and fries.


Their size varies from about 4" to over 10". 4 of the ten inch ones with sides would probably be just fine for the average Joe, but I bet once you finished your third you'd wish you had a few more. They're really that good.

Pugs, in one pic you can see we brought a burner to cook over too. We had oil, flour, utensils and everything we'd need to fry some up on site, and that was the plan but when the neighbors started showing up with moose and deer, we just stuck to that and a couple of instant udon we brought so we wouldn't have to worry about cleaning dishes. I was already laden with dog beds and blankets and all manner of other crap Mrs. KG insisted on for the damned hounds. wink

Mirage: easier said than done. I have more than 35 thousand images on PB from more than a decade using them. I want out of PB but not before figuring out how to transition with my stuff intact. Need to buy another beefy external drive and a lot of hours in front of the computer at minimum, I figure...

Slum, in case you read this, I'm a little disappointed. You normally are super observant and catch every weird thing in people's pictures but didn't opine on the one headless smelt in a pic on the platter with dozens of other whole ones. Any guesses as to why that one was missing his noggin?

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I remember filling garbage cans full of dip netted smelt from under the singing bridge in on the north central lake huron coast of MI.
Also netted for them a few times on Lake Superior of Skanee, MI.
Excellent table fair, but cleaning a garbage pail of them is tedious.
Sadly zebra and quagga mussels have about wiped out the smelt runs.

Last edited by BWalker; 04/18/21.
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That sucks, BW. All too often, invasives have destroyed many natural resources around the nation.

I was pleased to hear about all the other folks here who have fond memories of chasing smelt and appreciate those who shared them.

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Reminded of the time back when our kids were all still little and we watched Jaws 3-D on TV sponsored by Coke-A-Cola wearing cardboard 3-D glass (free as a promotion for buying Coke products) while chowing down on a big batch of smelt the the wife fried up for us. The kids loved smelt and called them "Little Fish".

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OK kamo. Nobody is asking...so I will. Why no head? Dawg?

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Good post, Kamo!

Hooligan (a smelt - aka "candlefish")) should start running in a few weeks here in the Kenai River, and along Turnagain Arm. I haven't dipped in years, but have a net hanging in the garage. Might try it again. Getting low on salmon, and out of wild game completely, dammit.

I think I'll try fishing for halibut at the mouth of the Kenai on incoming tides once or twice when they do. Small ones (mostly, I understand) follow the hooligan in sometimes, and can be bank-caught. If one is lucky. But what's not to like about a cold, windy day on a sand beach, with gulls calling, and the dogs rolling in offal? smile.

The best ice-fishing/Lab story I've ever read about came out of the Minnesota/Wisconsin area, I believe. The fellow pulled up a fish, which dropped off the hook and disappeared back down the trench-hole. The Black Lab dove in after it, but never came back up - instead surfacing through the hole in the shack next door. This gentlemen had been working the anti-freeze over pretty good, and when a black monster came surging up out of his fishing trench, he left, without bothering to open the door nor stopping to look back for 50 yards or so,


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I used to net them out of the streams in NY, was a small creek so we put the females back. The amish used to come down and they would cook them on top of their lanterns. Hooligan are just as good. Clean up real easy with scissors, cut off the head and open up the belly. Run your finger up the spine to clean everything out

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Originally Posted by Colorado1135
I remember as a kid going up on lake supperior with family and using these metal dipnets for catching smelt, the dads would scoop and dump into buckets, us kids had to manage them after that point. been close to 40 years since I did that, I remember them being delicious.
I have a few recipes for different tartar sauces, my favorite uses mom's homemade green tomato relish, I can send you a jar if you want to try it. 1/2 mayo, 1/2 ketchup with a dollup of relish. yum yum


I'd like that very much. Please bring with this coming fall. We'll conduct live action taste tests with your tartar vs. mine on fresh cod/haddock. wink

Las, thanks for your words. I now know what is meant by 'hooligan/candlefish'. And BTW, that is by a long measure one of the best damned lab stories I've ever read! smile I assured Mrs. KG there'd be no issues with the girls going for any impromptu swims from the shack . She looked at me suspiciously and said, "OK, but if either of them do, you're going straight in after them!"

Hank, that makes sense in small stream populations, especially if roe can be seen in the females.

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Originally Posted by mjbgalt
OK kamo. Nobody is asking...so I will. Why no head? Dawg?



No sir. I needed an apostrophe...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15901202/1

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Good times L. We used to dip the wee little buggers out of the St Clair river by the net fulls on a good run. It got real sporty when the ice was coming down the river.


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