smelt fishing

[bomber]

anybody heading out?

[mastereagle22]

Man I remember going with my dad when I was 5 at Navy Pier. Haven't lived in Chicago since '77. One of the funnest memories of my time with my dad in the Windy City.

Take care and good luck...

[bomber]

brings back memories eh?yeah same with me,too bad all the smelt have moved on to parts unknown.now its mostly guys going there but stopping at the local food mart and bringing smelt with them to the lake .we still have a good time drinking beer and talking about the days of buckets of smelt

[Digginman]

Man, I grew up in Michigan and I miss those tasty critters. You can buy em in the spring in Virginia, but it's not the same.

DM

[-MURPH-]

good old memories i remember bringing home coolers full of them but those days are gone.its still a great time out i mite just hook up with you guys this year.don't think i have bin out in 20+ years were ever theres beer I'm there lol.

[mastereagle22]

If I'm remembering correctly we used big nets to catch them and then we put them in pickle buckets and brought them home. There were thousands of them. One group had this big crain type thing to lower and raise the nets we just had little nets like you would use to seign minnows. Is this right?

What happened to the smelt? You are all saying they aren't there anymore where did they go? Sorry don't mean to be stupid just curious.

[EDDE]

moved to deeper cloudier water
the zebra muscles have filtered the water to the point its clearer/cleaner
they see the nets and spook out
or probably over fished with the afore mentioned CRANE fishing operations

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

moved to deeper cloudier water
the zebra muscles have filtered the water to the point its clearer/cleaner
they see the nets and spook out
or probably over fished with the afore mentioned CRANE fishing operations

When they were around you could not "overfish" them.

Alewives seem to have displaced them after a probable ballast
discharge at some time.

all have a good un....
SHERMANVILLE

[rwsnc]

Wish I was going. Those things taste great. We used to go around Cayuga Lake in upstate NY. The two worst things about "smelting" was cleaning them the next morning although it was pretty easy with a garden hose, a pair of scissors and a thumb. There was an 8 quart limit, back then. Don't know what it is now.

The other bad thing was being hungry and smelling someone cooking them right there on the shore.

Of course... the fact that we had to get up and go to work the next morning after being up till 2:00 or 3:00 didn't help, either.

Good luck and enjoy.

[bomber]

not sure about the alewives sherm,i remember as a young buck,the smell of alewives was unbelieveable in summer with them washing up on montrose,but back then(60's)smelt were plentifull.i believe its got to do with the age of the lake.ever wonder why theres no northern pike here but you go to say stevens point up north and you do see them.i got curious about this about 10 years ago and asked some brainiacs and and thats the best explanation i got.too bad though, beers,friends and family and cooking smelt over a lit up garbage can=great times and memories

[treasurefiend]

those days are long gone my friend...