Shelburne Bay

[vtcountrychamp]

The was bay completely frozen and people are ice fishing out by the point. 4-6" of ice and caught around 60 really small perch. Didn't keep a single one.

[Yeti]

That has to be very frustrating.  I can empathize with you, because I had the same kind of day at Lake Iroquois.   I didn't catch 60 perch, so you had it worse than me.  Shelburne bay used to be the go to place for smelt, when I was kid growing up here.  Is it still a good smelt fishing or have the Alewives driven them out?

[DirtyDan23]

wait.... I was just on the bay last week and it was  just barely skimmed over!

[Honest_John]

Is the entire bay frozen? Could you fish off Red Rocks?

[vtcountrychamp]

I haven't caught smelt there since 2008. A couple years ago we put down a camera and there was still a ton of alewives at the bottom and they were eating them. The trout and salmon are huge from it though.

Is the entire bay frozen? Could you fish off Red Rocks?

Don't know about redrocks, but I was fishing off Allen Hill, right where the smelt use to be. There was 4-5 others out there too.

[Yeti]

Thank you vtcountrychamp for your reply.  Terrible to hear the smelt population has been decimated by the Alewives.  I have great memories of fishing for smelt in the winter on Shelburne Bay.  Having my mother cook them along with stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes and fresh baked bread from Goldman's bakery in the Old North End.  I wanted to catch and cook a batch for my father before he passed away.  It was his favorite winter meal on a freezing cold Vermont night.  He would eat the leftovers cold, the next morning.  Along with his plate of cold fried smelt, he would have a cold baked beans sandwich.  I love smelt, but I can't do that for breakfast.