I'm 69 years old. I have many fond memories of smelting the sandy. I would smoke them and give them to the neighbor kids. They called them "fish candy"
Norman Rea My brother is closing in on 80 years old and just told me that when he was in his 20s the limit was 25 pounds of smelt on the Sandy River. But you had 10 minutes to catch them! I have such fond memories of eating crispy fried smelts that my mother had cooked. It’s a wonderful fish.
Congratulations, your generation caught and wasted too many smelt and didn't allow enough spawning to take place. This is why we cannot fish today, do you understand cause and effect?
I went smelting the last time they opened the fishery on the Sandy River back in 2014 I think. I was little then. I went with my dad, mom, brothers and grandma and made some sturgeon bait and lasting memories. On a whim, I went down to Glenn Otto a couple days ago, and just so happened to run into the smelt running thick. Now, a few days later, the run is open, and I'm going with my grandma tomorrow. I'm super excited about this and hope to learn more about smelt and the importance of their run both to the ecosystem and to the people who dip for them. I take some pride in the fact that even as a child, I have gotten to experience these smelt runs and fish for them both times the season has been open in my whole life. I hope to make a tradition of this as I go into adulthood and to keep the fishery alive and healthy.
The smoked ones sound delicious. One of my favourite foods, of all foods, is the Manx (Isle of Man) or Scottish kipper, IOW smoked herring. Not 'fishy' or rank, but with a fantastically rich (and as someone oddly, but accurately desribed it) 'bland' flavour and texture. I could live on them.
Nice video! Smoked smelt/herring is one of my favorite foods. I never realized that smelt make a run every year, I've got to try that out on the next run!
Great video Shawn! I grew up in Washington and I went smelting many many times and every year I noticed a decline in the amount we caught. I remember my stepdad netting 20+ fish every time he dipped the net when I was younger to almost getting completely skunked by the time I was a teen. Its a delicious fish and a blast to catch them on a good day! Hope to see more fishing video's soon!
Since you were no where near your limit you should have picked up some of the spawned out beach fish to demonstrate their other uses... I've heard of the smelt candle but never seen anyone do it...
good job man good luck next year. I used to fish for walleye at "Mammee" river in upper Ohio some thing, but we use a fishing rod. thank you for sharing
shawn woods looks incredible! when will you be doing primitive fishing and will you be doing a video on making a fishing pole? I cant wait to see more videos on your bucket list every thing I cant wait to see. thank you
I've had smelt before and it's one of my favourite fish to eat. The ones I had were smaller so you could deep fry it and eat it whole without cleaning it
your videos are fantastic. did you know you can gut most fish the way you do it with smelt? Cut behind the gills, put your thumb down the neck hole and grab the head, then pull out with your thumb and you're left with exactly what you've got here with the smelt.
Over 80% of the unharvested smelt are eaten by the growing numbers of seals and sealions. Artic turns get 10% goes to seagulls and other bird 5 % end up dead on river banks 3% spawn 2% the humans might get in the 2 half days that there is an open season and only allowed 10 lbs just saying it's hard to believe that humans are low man om the pecking order
