If you ever have an opportunity to go ice fishing for smelt...at night...I would strongly encourage you to take in the adventure!

Spent about 5 hours last night sitting in a shanty over 45' of water in hopes of scrounging up enough hook and line caught smelt to make for a couple of deep fried meals. Got set up just as the sun went down, and stayed until just after midnight. Going after smelt at night is new to me...so this was a first time effort.

Haley jigs, tipped with small maggots, seems to be the preferred choice of tackle on this pursuit. I was using a 28" long standard ice fishing rod in a medium action, which made detecting a bite somewhat difficult. It was like closing your eyes, holding out an ostrich feather quill, and then trying to feel a common housefly land on the end of it. Very, very subtle! I missed a lot of bites, but did manage to catch 28 smelt...all in the 5" to 7" length range.

Everything is a keeper, and I felt like a giddy child every time I got a solid hook up and brought a wriggling fish up thru the hole. Back in the 60's, we used to dip net these rascals when they were more common and ran up into almost every Great Lakes river tributary to spawn. We even caught them in small ditches...and always well after dark. It was an annual fishing ritual for us kids. Lot's of excitement and hoopla, as well as having had permission to stay out late with our friends.

Fishing last night was an absolute blast, and by the time I had decided to call it quits I noticed I was sitting in a half inch deep water pool on the floor of the shanty as the internal ice surface melted from my ever glowing space heater. There was some lake water in the mix as well due to the recent heavy snowfall that was pressing down a little bit on the 8" thick ice surface so that water could weep in from the slight depressions around the borings.

Thank goodness for the heat! It was 20 degrees when I started, and 13 when I finished. After having spent 5 hours inside the shanty it was a rude awakening to step outside and start the take down process. The edge flaps of the shanty fabric had frozen to the ice and it was like pulling 9" wide industrial strength Velcro strips off!

Got home, cleaned fish and laid my head on the pillow by 1:30 am. Dreampt all night long, or so it seemed, that I was encapsulated in a "green room" jigging up smelt one after another. If I count all the fish I caught while sleeping my tally may have been closer to a hundred!

Thank you Ryp! It's funny...when I caught my first one the other night, I actually laughed out loud about it! Like yourself, after dip netting them by the bucketfulls as a kid I never in my wildest dreams ever thought that someday I would be going after them one at a time...and with hook and line!

I had so much fun that I plan to go back now and then while we still have good ice.

Interesting about smoking them...never thought of that. Back in the day, when you have hundreds of them to clean...it was indeed a bit of a chore!

If you ever have an opportunity to go ice fishing for smelt...at night...I would strongly encourage you to take in the adventure!

Spent about 5 hours last night sitting in a shanty over 45' of water in hopes of scrounging up enough hook and line caught smelt to make for a couple of deep fried meals. Got set up just as the sun went down, and stayed until just after midnight. Going after smelt at night is new to me...so this was a first time effort.

Haley jigs, tipped with small maggots, seems to be the preferred choice of tackle on this pursuit. I was using a 28" long standard ice fishing rod in a medium action, which made detecting a bite somewhat difficult. It was like closing your eyes, holding out an ostrich feather quill, and then trying to feel a common housefly land on the end of it. Very, very subtle! I missed a lot of bites, but did manage to catch 28 smelt...all in the 5" to 7" length range.

Everything is a keeper, and I felt like a giddy child every time I got a solid hook up and brought a wriggling fish up thru the hole. Back in the 60's, we used to dip net these rascals when they were more common and ran up into almost every Great Lakes river tributary to spawn. We even caught them in small ditches...and always well after dark. It was an annual fishing ritual for us kids. Lot's of excitement and hoopla, as well as having had permission to stay out late with our friends.

Fishing last night was an absolute blast, and by the time I had decided to call it quits I noticed I was sitting in a half inch deep water pool on the floor of the shanty as the internal ice surface melted from my ever glowing space heater. There was some lake water in the mix as well due to the recent heavy snowfall that was pressing down a little bit on the 8" thick ice surface so that water could weep in from the slight depressions around the borings.

Thank goodness for the heat! It was 20 degrees when I started, and 13 when I finished. After having spent 5 hours inside the shanty it was a rude awakening to step outside and start the take down process. The edge flaps of the shanty fabric had frozen to the ice and it was like pulling 9" wide industrial strength Velcro strips off!

Got home, cleaned fish and laid my head on the pillow by 1:30 am. Dreampt all night long, or so it seemed, that I was encapsulated in a "green room" jigging up smelt one after another. If I count all the fish I caught while sleeping my tally may have been closer to a hundred!