Smelt

[LETSgoFISHIN]

we were by the airport

[fsnrod]

Are you going to out there tonight? I was going to try it tonight .

[gardn184]

Will hopefully be heading out tonight as well, anyone seen the waves down on the lake recently

[sor]

Viewing the lake from East High School. Looks a lot calmer today than yesterday. Latest forecast calls for east winds approximately 5-6 mph all night. Definitely doable.

[lispeej]

any guess on weather predictions for tomorrow nite?

[Jim Almquist]

any guess on weather predictions for tomorrow nite?

Here is the marine forecast for Duluth

10 knots is equal to about 11.5 mph

LSZ144-145-142130-

TWO HARBORS TO DULUTH MN-DULUTH MN TO PORT WING WI-

934 AM CDT WED APR 14 2010

.REST OF TODAY...NE WIND 10 TO 15 KT SUBSIDING TO 5 TO 10 KT IN

THE AFTERNOON. A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH THE DAY.

SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON. WAVES 2 TO 4 FT SUBSIDING TO 2 FT OR

LESS IN THE AFTERNOON.

.TONIGHT...E WIND 5 TO 10 KT BECOMING SE AFTER MIDNIGHT. PARTLY

CLOUDY. WAVES 2 FT OR LESS.

.THURSDAY...SW WIND 10 TO 15 KT. MOSTLY SUNNY IN THE MORNING...

BECOMING PARTLY CLOUDY. WAVES 1 TO 3 FT.

.THURSDAY NIGHT...W WIND 10 TO 15 KT. PARTLY CLOUDY. WAVES 1 TO

3 FT.

[fsnrod]

Look on the NWS detailed 7day forcast for duluth it's a little different. I looked at the web cam at the lift bridge it don't look real bad.

[FishingRebel]

Hmmm... Can anybody give me directions on how to get to Park Point? I want to give smelting a try but have never been to Park Point before.

Thanks.

[Deep_Sinker]

Interesting read in the News Tribune today. It states that smelt can ONLY be used to EAT. Please do your part to stop the spread of VHS inland from Lake Superior.

Read here:

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/165774/

[BD110]

Quartersawn,

If you e-mailed me I've sent you a reply.

[BD110]

Deep_Sinker,

The read my have been interesting but if you look at both photos they are file photos from 2006 and 2008 If I remember correctly.

The run may not be as good as is looked on the front page of the paper.

I know that's not what your comment or concerns are about, I just thought I would point out the old photos.

[ripstick]

Now it seems interesting what the area bait shops are going to do. Whats to say some one gets a bunch of smelt and says they are from grindstone or where ever. If it is vhs as the key word curbing is not going to work.

[Great Outdoors]

If you're selling smelt from a questionable source, the DNR can confiscate and test them for VHS.

They can also take a scale sample and find out what lake they came from.

You can be billed for the test, and fined for knowingly selling illegal bait.

All bait dealers are sent a list of various restrictions when they receive their annual bait license application.

Not worth trying to play the system.

[End of the Line]

The MN DNR is possibly going to ban the use of Smelt from Lake Superior used as bait. The idea is to prevent the spread of the VHS virus.

I have a few concerns with that.

I understand that the DNR is concerned about the spread of the VHS virus and wishes to take quick action to stop the spread and as a fishermen of Lake Superior I share their concerns. I think it is absolutely incumbent on fishermen to exercise good sportsmanship and lead by way of example to ensure the preservation of Lake Superior for future generations.

However there is already a ban on removing smelt from Lake Superior to lakes. So I also believe that smelt caught in Lake Superior and then used as bait only in Lake Superior only should represent no threat of further spreading the VHS virus.

It is also my understanding that smelt do not carry the VHS virus, and this is a preemptive move just incase the virus infects them also. As far as I know, and maybe someone else knows, that there is no confirmed cases of smelt with VHS.

Wisconsin has no ban as of yet, so do I just go over there to fish and spend my money. What about the charters that run out of Superior/ South Shore rather than Duluth/ North Shore? Do the WI charters now have a huge competitive advantage? Or what if I purchased some smelt already from Lake Superior, who is going to refund my money? I know people who have spent well over $150 already on legal taking of smelt from Lake Superior from the Ashland area either by paying for it or putting in the effort!

I understand the idea that just outlawing smelt entirely would make law enforcement easier. However I believe that there are still other viable solutions that could be enforced fairly easily while not impacting so many people and small businesses such as the charter fishing captains, therefore I could suggest one of the following ideas be included in any new laws relating to the use of smelt as bait in MN.

You may not use smelt as bait in any inland lakes. There are several alternatives to most inland lakes but on Lake Superior it would be tough to find an alternative since the MN DNR is planning on herring and ciscos as well with this law. How about some sort of registering your smelt caught in Lake Superior or other locations. The fact that they give me absolutely no alternative for bait is really a tough pill to swallow.

I have contacted the Lake Superior fisheries dept already to voice my concern about the absolute ban of smelt as bait. I'd post the contact info but i am not sure its allowed.

This is my opinion, if you agree I think it worth your time to investigate into a few contacts of your own.

[klee]

This is a stupid question I'm going to ask, does anyone know if you can/or if there are any smelt on the superior bay side? that little lake or something by the park point parking lot?j/w.

[lispeej]

anyone knows where they sell the wooden or telescopic handled metal dipping nets? i've looked at gander, fleetfarm, joes, cabelas, and other misc shops in the cities and no go.

would like to get one.

[BD110]

Hey Guys,

By all means I would love to read your comments and concerns about the use of Smelt as bait or the spread of the VHS virus for that matter. As I tried to suggest before please just start a new thread on the topic you would like to speak about.

This thread is about the current or pending Smelt run. All topics tend to drift from time to time. I'm just asking for a little help in keeping this topic on track, so the questions and comments regarding the actual Smelt run are not lost in between all of the other comments and concerns we each have.

[BD110]

Klee,

Way back in the day the bay side that you're asking about may have been worth the effort. That has not been the case for the last several years.

[2thepointsetters]

.

[lispeej]

Did duluth get any rain in the past few days? If so, did that speed up the water temp. for the smelt to run? I'm curious cause I'm going out tonite. Anybody else going out tonite?

[sor]

Anybody have any luck last night?

A group of us took our young kids down to the airport. Only pulled from 8:30 - 10:00 because we had to get the little ones home to bed. Only got about 10 smelt. (Two 20' nets - none were Christiansens!)

We're going back tomorrow without kids and were wondering how things were at the airport, pier, and tot lot after 10:00.

[firefighterj93]

I was out last night. Didn't get across the bridge until 10:15. The tot lot was packed as well as right next to the bridge so I didn't bother stopping there. Went down near the airport. It was slow on my first 3 pulls, only a dozen or so, but after 11 pm, it was on! Just after midnight we had our 10 gallons filled. Would've kept going, but I was already tired to begin with.

On our third pull we pulled in a net full of weeds. I'm not talking about a few, the net was full to the brim. It took 5 guys just to get the thing close to shore so we could pull the weeds out. But I noticed if we went from one edge of those weeds or muck to the other, the more smelt we pulled in.

I'll be going back on Sunday with another crew. Hopefully it will be as good or maybe even better.

~Johnson~

[firefighterj93]

By the way....I love my new Christensen net!

~Johnson~

[sor]

Thanks for the info Firefighter. We figured it would pick up after we left. We'll be staying later tomorrow night.

--Sor

p.s. "Ouch!" on the Christiansen comment! I (and my back and arms)have net envy!

[opsirc]

is anyone going to try tonight?

[freefoodisgood11]

do they come in on park point before comng up the lester? any ideas when they might head for the river?

[Quartersawn]

I was just out on Park Point tonight and returned with 20lbs of smelt. Not bad for my one and only time out this year. Other groups with better nets than we had were doing very well; lots of excitement. I just wanted to let you all know. We were right down by Sky Harbor and the water was fairly calm. Need sleep...good luck everyone!

[lispeej]

Last night, we also did alright. We were at the far beach of park point. Kinda by the lighthouse. If I had to do it again, I'd get a bigger seine net. I can only imagine what it could've been like with a christiansen seine net. Some buddies and I used a shorter (10 ft.) seine net.

We only got around 4 gallons of smelt. Had we had a better net, we could've easily gotten 10-15 gallons. There were so many smelts that we saw escaping our net.

They started to run for us as soon as we got there around 10pm, and stopped around 130am. We were wet and cold, so we decided to stop.

They are here, and hopefully you'll be ready for them.

Be smart, go out with a larger seine net and you'll thank yourself.

-Good luck.

PL

[JustLOVEit]

lispeej, seem like its still going strong over there. We were there last weekend and got a total of 4 coolers for 2 hours pull on Saturday and Sunday night... Saturday was mostly males and Sunday came in fat females.. I'm pretty sure everyone is about a week late, we were the only one there the first night and 3 other groups the second night.

Well, continue the success!!

[lispeej]

lispeej, seem like its still going strong over there. We were there last weekend and got a total of 4 coolers for 2 hours pull on Saturday and Sunday night... Saturday was mostly males and Sunday came in fat females.. I'm pretty sure everyone is about a week late, we were the only one there the first night and 3 other groups the second night.

Well, continue the success!!

I am afraid you are correct. That makes sense because the females that we got last night, their bellies weren't as big as it should be. I think they've been laying eggs all week. There are some that havent' though. That's one way I can tell if the run is early or not. One should have no problem telling males from females in the earlier part of the run.

Last weekend, we were at lester. Lester was slow. Looks like you guys hit jackpot lastweekend. Congrats.

BTW, what type of nets do you guys use?