Ice Fishing for Smelt | A Winter Tradition in Maine 

TARTAR sauce... Howie Carr.

In Michigan we used to dip net them by the thousands when they came in from the great lakes to spawn..

Thanks for the reply, I love the feeling of a small old fishing community.

Thank you!

Lake Huron used to have massive Smelt runs ..After Salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes they all but disappeared..

he dont like cocaine but he loves the smell of it.wink

me too this was definitely last year no ice on the riva yet

been fishing ponds and lakes for months

@@bmdubclub9933 sucks

@@bmdubclub9933 try Jamie’s or Jimmy’s pond same place in hallowell brookies are biting

Also diabetes, but definitely the magic.

Uncle Allen's thats how we do it up heea

no ice quite yet we'll get it though just a late season. im from durham lisbon area

I did the same, only on lake Michigan. Big giant net that you'd crank up and be amazed sometimes by what's in it.

Very cool and so true @EskimoBrosFISHAK . Thanks for watching!

That used to be a thing when my grandfathers were young but it's just not common now. There'd be men shoulder to shoulder getting hammered and eating tube steaks off the fire. I don't know if the runs got weak or what. The rivers got heavily polluted for most of the 2nd half of the century so I think any tradition dealing with being in the river and eating out of it died back. It was still legal when I was in high school but it was just uncommon. After ice out you can cast and snag them on the Kennebec. Tie on 4 trebles, the heaviest lead your rod can handle, and fire that sucker at the horizon. I worked with a guy from Wisconsin and I explained the shacks to him and he thought I was talking about another species, he'd only heard of netting them too.

We used to do the same thing under the Hoan bridge in Milwaukee right down by Summer Fest back in the 80s

@@gregoryhunts3006 Yep, 80s as well.

@@MrGomjabber heard the smelt are somewhat making a comeback in lake Michigan, but I wouldn't eat a thing out of that terd hole now.

Absolutely tradition!

Both are tasty that's for sure

I was trying to remember but we did use nets and had a 5gal bucket limit in MI

sounds like my kinda party

Why do people fish for minnows. When he pulled up the first fish and said they were gonna keep it I thought it was a joke, then buddy tossed her in the bucket.

They're from Maine. Enough said.

@@brodywallen2143 you get a good haul, clean em, batter em, fry em. They’re delicious.

Yeah. Noticed that too.

@Sparka J where I live in california, the water is too dirty so we've been advised against eating them out of our local bays/harbors. How do you cook them?

It probably was. I have lived in Maine all my life. We do the same thing in the spring when they run the rivers and streams for their spawning run.

@@dandingfelder6763 Cool. I hadn't heard of anybody who still did that since my grandfather died. I used to cast and snag them below the Gardiner bridge.

I grew up in Minnesota netting Smelt when they ran heavy on the north shore of Lake Superior. We would get hundreds of pounds using dip nets. Sold most of the catch to pay for gas and beer.

@@dandingfelder6763 My grandfather had some funny stories about dipnetting up north. One time they were getting skunked on smelt and then the alewives showed up so they said screw it, let's keep alewives. So they were partying in the dark and bailing in the alewives. My grandfather stepped out of the river for some more beer and bumped into a warden. "you boys catching anything?" "just the herring, the alewives." "Hey you can't keep alewives!" My grandfather paused. Then he lit a smoke so the other guys would see the badge and uniform in the matchlight and screamed at the top of his drunk lungs "WHAT? YOU CAN'T CATCH ALEWIVES?! OH NO!" He said the sound of dozens of bushels of fish being dumped back into the river almost drowned out the warden calling him a rotten no good S.O. B. He got the biggest ticket the warden could write for his alewives but everyone helped pay it.

Right we catch them in Michigan with nets!

He’s out getting smelts fir his kitties

we use them for pike bait round here

We filmed this last February on the 19th. I don't think they have enough ice yet but that could change soon. Thanks for watching!

I live in maine and can tell u that as of now Jan 18 21 there is no ice

yeah my family's telling me the winter is real mild so far this year. Some year there's just never ice. It's not just river current, the tide still moves several feet as far up as augusta so that's a lot of flushing. It needs to get good and cold for a bit.

the kennebec isnt locked up till almost wyman lake . pray for cold weather!!!!

All depends on who your fishing with and how much u have drank.

We took the stove out of our shack because with everyone in there it got extremely warm. Plus it saved us some space.

@@OnTheWaterMedia That makes more sense. Makes a lot of sense. I used to live a few minutes from there, I fished the next camps upstream and we had some winters around 2000-03 where the ice was forming so fast that if it stayed empty for a tide the hosts would have to go in and chainsaw the holes back open, but we never had that many dudes and gear in there.

Dude immediately came to comments looking for someone to say it. Those fuckin eyes!

Same

Buzz on ... Maine tradition.

I was like cocaine or amphetamines.. haha. Not judging!

James Eddy Smelt Camps are in Dresden Maine

They are definitely delicious. I didn't taste chicken but it doesn't have a fishy taste either.

They're very delicious!

Do you cook the smelt with the flowers?

FFS Good grief.

@@downeastermaineusa3794 It was a joke. The thought of a nine inch fish proudly hung over the mantle is so ridiculous that it's funny. But a nine inch smelt is actually impressive.

@@petercollin5670 Yes . I got a good laff. Thanks. Yes, 9" is a dandy, upta camp !!

You must have a lot of experience Danny

@@oldpolak5203 You related to Joe? And yes more then you'll ever know. Bradley County Tn