Burntside Smelt

[lakerunner]

Guys (and gals) during a horribly slow day Sunday on Burntside, I was getting extremely irritated with the smelt so I dug into my bag and pulled out a trick that I used back in MI.

Back home (and I know some of these tactics aren't legal in MN so I didn't do it), but there were 2 lakes that we would go to around 10pm targeting to catch (hook & line--no net) smelt and would have a blast 200 fish in a couple of hours was slow. What everyone did (and there was usually 100 or so shacks), was to put a halogen light down a hole outside the shack. We would be fishing in 100+ FOW and this was used to bring the smelt cloud up closer to the surface. We would tie on a Hali jig and multiple (5-10) hooks in 1 foot increments along the mainline. Tip with red spikes and start throwing them in the bucket--actually quite fun as it was not uncommon to catch 2-3 at a time.

Anyways yesterday, I tied on a Hali jig and tipped the hook with a very small piece of cut minnow. In 5 minutes, I had a dozen. I was doing this while I was jigging for trout. Good idea if you run out of bait, need fresh bait, or want a good tasting smelt dinner--if I had done it all day, targeting smelt, I easily could have filled a bucket.

Back to the regs and resource, all of the tactics are legal in MI. They fish these lakes relentlessly all winter every year, and the smelt haven't suffered a bit.

[hanso612]

A sebiki rig lig the ones used for saltwater would be great. I also know we a can use multiple flys when fishing for trout but not tipped with bait.I know there is a good run for smelt in the spring and it couldn't hurt to hit it hard in order to cut down on the smelt. Taking a bunch in winter sounds fun too.

Anybody know any good dipping sauce recipies? I suddenly have a hankering for fried smelt. Hans

[lakerunner]

hanso612, I usually just make a cocktail sauce using ketchup and horseradish--more horseradish for me, less for the wife a son.

I don't know how much you could cut down on the smelt in B'side. The lakers haven't put much of a dent in them--anglers would have a minimal impact.

The lakes we fished were slightly smaller than B'side--same structure/topography though. Since I was a kid, it was not uncommon to see 100+ houses/night every night and we haven't been able to fish them out.

[lakerunner]

I'm sure shiner2367 can vouch for the smelt fishing in Green Lk (Traverse City) and Higgins Lk (Grayling). I know that he went to college down there and fished a lot in those areas.

[hanso612]

Where is the best smelt run on Burntside. Most people I know of hit a stream on the north arm. Is that because it is easy to get to by road or is it the best run? Are the regulations to smelt the same as on Superior? Hans