dip netting bomo

[legend]

i grew up in poultney and dip netted smelt in pencil mill brook around the last saturday in april. does this still happen any more ?

[Fish Farmer]

Dip netting smelt has been illegal for quite sometime in Vermont.

[Light liner]

Yes.
Thats why the smelt population has plummeted. State wont do a thing about it.

[ice fiend]

Illegal go to nys to do it

[Champlain Islander]

Did it in a river off Lake George many years ago. I thought it was illegal now but I guess not. It was pretty easy to fill a gallon bucket which was the limit as I remember.   We went to a spot in the river with a small wire basket taped to a pole and scooped them up as they ran the river. Prime spots were around boulders and bends in the brook.

[Fish Farmer]

Did it in a river off Lake George many years ago. I thought it was illegal now but I guess not. It was pretty easy to fill a gallon bucket which was the limit as I remember.   We went to a spot in the river with a small wire basket taped to a pole and scooped them up as they ran the river. Prime spots were around boulders and bends in the brook.

From what I remember smelt fishing whether hook and line or dipping was ILLEGAL. At least from when I fished it in the 1990's until last year when they opened it up to hook and line only and 25 fish daily limit.

[Champlain Islander]

The many years ago equates to the 1980's time frame. It was legal to net them in NY at that time but we were limited to a gallon of smelt. Drove down  late afternoon and scoped out a spot and when it got dark started to net. Some locals showed us how to do it. We finished and got back home to Vermont split them up and fried a bunch up around midnight. They were the best smelt I ever ate.

[ice fiend]

It IS illegal

[lowaccord66]

People really do get off saying things are illegal...it's like they think the statement makes them better or something...weird.
 

I enjoyed the story Islander...sounds like the good old days before people felt the need to be right all the time. 

[adkiceman1]

Come to Tupper Lake and dip where this both river dumps into the lake.  Our lake is extremely over populated and you would be helping the cause!

[adkiceman1]

Bog... not both

[fishingidjit]

I remember dipping for smelt  back in the 70's near Rockwood ,Me. Some were saved for bait for the summer but most were eaten ! Good fun and good eats.

[ice fiend]

I wish we could do it again but I think it would lead to fight over spots more likely

[thefishingweatherman]

I wish we could do it again but I think it would lead to fight over spots more likely

This is part of the reason it was banned in the first place.

[Champlain Islander]

I did it once (when it was legal) and it was a blast but the 2 hour drive at the end of the day to get there then return around midnight made it hard. I remember fishing spring open water browns in Lake Ontario in the late 70's and early 80's at the Little Salmon River in Mexico NY. Visiting the access in the pre dawn there would be plenty of dip netters set up where the river meets the lake. I remember one group that filled a 32 gallon trash barrel in one night. I think somewhere between this time and when I tried it on Lake George there were limits placed which was the gallon of smelt. In addition, there were size requirements for the actual net. I think we got our basket at a bait shop somewhere in the Lake George area. The locals were great about showing us how to do it and there were spots that people guarded by going early but for the most part it was a good time with lots of lanterns going and some beer being shared. I used to fish often for smelt on Champlain with hook and line but those Lake George smelt were rough skinned probably a result of the spawning cycle and very tasty. I can assure everyone that it was legal during those times. I did some research and it became illegal to catch or possess rainbow smelt on Lake George or it's tributaries in 1986.

[ice fiend]

I caught my biggest brown fishing lake clear in in nys in the spring fishing on a sandbar that fed a small brook where the smelt were going in to spawn it was around 4 1/2 pounds I love when the smelt spawn because the big trout aren’t far behind

[Champlain Islander]

Big fish aren't the only ones who like to eat them. 

[legend]

thanks for the stories, it was a great time doing it in the early 60s in vermont....then calling all the neighbors over in the middle of the night to eat them, everyone sitting around my mothers table in jammies eating.

[thefishingweatherman]

I grew up on the coast of Maine, and I believe you can still dip net ocean-run fish there. Used to do it with my dad on little brooks in the middle of the night at high tide. There's also shanties you can rent that set you up to catch them through the ice on the rivers. Hence this documentary:

[Champlain Islander]

I have heard about the estuary rivers in Maine that freeze and the smelt camps that rise up. In the old days when I was a kid here in Vermont there would be a hundred shanties out at Thompson Point. I don't think the fishing is that good down there anymore. It has been a long time since I fished for smelt. I got totally hooked on fishing flatfish through the ice in 1991.

[bootstrap]

my favorite ice fishing episode.

[jonny jigger]

The last time I smelted Maine with dip nets u only had until midnight then it closed it was getting fished out pretty hard and only could keep 2 quarts of smelt u would be shoulder to shoulder with people but it was a blast just a big party

[EyERipLip]

Nice!!! Gotta love temp tales. “Smoke a jbone drink whatevah, hell we might even catch a fish”
hahah

[SkunkLuvver]

I’d never seen temp tales before but after watching the smelt episode I had to watch the rest of them. Good stuff!