Lightly battered with Drake's Crispy Fry Mix fresh smelt hot to go. Toasted them up in the garage with the ol' Fry Daddy. Watching the snow pile up. Used to get 'em by the pickup load. $6/lb. at Kroger now. Sure was a good treat in any event.
My father would take me every spring, he was on the fire department so all the fireman would get together and go down to the beach on lake Michigan. They would build a huge fire on the beach, drink beer, catch smelt and cook them on the spot. Back then you could use a forty foot sane, nowadays I believe it's ten or twelve foot limit, I don't think you can build a fire on the beach anymore. There's nothing like fresh caught smelt cooked up within minutes of catching them, and a bonus brown trout once in awhile, I still remember him saying hurry up and cook this one as he handed it to the cook, I am sure it wasn't legal to catch trout in a sane, it sure tasted illegal. I sure do miss going smelting... Now I have tried eating frozen smelt from the grocery store, it tastes like crap, I wouldn't recommend it. Dad would say " that enough to gag a maggot" ...
Used a 20-foot seine in Canada and filled laundry tubs, trash cans and the like. Too dang much. Couldn't give them away - unless, of course, you cleaned them first. Cleaning a 5-gallon pail-full took hours.
Seines are illegal in Michigan and dip net size was restricted, too. Still, it was easy to get too much in one evening dipping in the rivers.
Sure thankful for Kroger's coming up with a fresh (not frozen) supply.
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