IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Smelt => Topic started by: MBrown4 on Dec 02, 2013, 11:35 AM
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Wondering what is the most effective method to catch smelt through the ice jigging. I normally use small tungstens and a little piece of meat or maggot but I've heard a lot about cheese cloth and cotton once.i had tied some small maggot looking flies out of cotton and cut the points off.i was never able to try them though.i figure multiple hooks with just cheese cloth or something for them to snag their teeth in above a bell sinker should produce multiple fish each drop. thats if I find a material they get hung up in well.any input?
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In CT, we fish for landlocked rainbow smelt (smaller than their anadromous cousins) with Hali jigs and small dropper chains tipped with smelt meat. Usually tip the jig with a mousie or a spike to get the first smelt then sacrafice it to get his buddies to bite.
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Hali jig or any small vertical jig with a hook either on a light chain or dropper line. Glow,silver, gold, and white seem to work the best in my experience. Put either a single spike or gulp maggot on the hook. Where legal tie another small hook a few inches to a foot above the jig and tip it the same way. When you catch one cut a small sliver of meat off and hook it through the skin. Use this for bait and you're good to go.
Another trick- If you catch a bigger smelt hook it through the back onto a big swedish pimple or anything flashy and hang it just a couple feet below the ice in a second hole next to the one you're jigging. This really helps the school stay in the area and in many cases helps to draw them up off the bottom. Again only do it where legal. A dark shanty and a big smelt hung just below the ice can get smelt right up in your hole sometimes. :tipup:
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Ah I forgot about the hali. thats what I start with but i get aggrevated at missed bites.a lot of times I'm fishing 40 to 70 ft with smelt right on bottom.never had them below the ice. would the hooked smelt trick work that deep?
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PK Predators will work well. 1/16 ounce :) Pink Pearl, Red Dot Glow and Gold
http://www.pklures.com/ (http://www.pklures.com/)
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Ah I forgot about the hali. thats what I start with but i get aggrevated at missed bites.a lot of times I'm fishing 40 to 70 ft with smelt right on bottom.never had them below the ice. would the hooked smelt trick work that deep?
I've had it work that deep. Each time you get one or two fish a foot higher than you did before. You can walk them up the stairs if they're really aggressive. ;)
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I have always used Hail's for smelt. Anything that glows or is gold seems to work the best. I use wax worms, red spikes, and pieces of raw shrimp with great success. Maybe I will try the cotton trick this year. Spearing(where legal) is also a blast when they turn off and are right below the ice.
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I've had it work that deep. Each time you get one or two fish a foot higher than you did before. You can walk them up the stairs if they're really aggressive. ;)
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I'd imagine you get the occasional laker on it too huh
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i here some red yard tied to your hook/line works well going to try it out on glow jigs this winter
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I'd imagine you get the occasional laker on it too huh
It happens thats for sure! ;D
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I use a jig board I made for fishing the Maine smelt camps. Works great.
- ATG
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I use a jig board I made for fishing the Maine smelt camps. Works great.
- ATG
What is a jig board? Got a picture?
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Where we fish for smelt , we try to use live minnow's about 3 to 4 inches . dead ones work also, super worms work . We put out 4 to 5 line all at different depths till start hitting then we adjust . but we find you can catch them just about at any depth . We are fishing in about 30 feet of water .
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you are catching smelt using 4 inch minnows? :o those must be some monster smelt!
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Ya the average size is 10 inches and have got them as big as 15 inches , get a lot in the 11 to 12 inch range. They are rainbow smelt .
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Sea run?
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What is a jig board? Got a picture?
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=155954.0
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yup sea run
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you are catching smelt using 4 inch minnows? :o those must be some monster smelt!
What he said...also had GREAT luck on small jigs tipped with raw shrimp... sometimes you can get them on tip-ups with small hooks and light leaders, if you can keep the perch away ;D
Gotta love them Goat island smelt eh jabers? note the lamprey bite on the top one :o
(http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q24/redmond_photos/smelt.jpg) (http://s132.photobucket.com/user/redmond_photos/media/smelt.jpg.html)
(http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q24/redmond_photos/smelt003.jpg) (http://s132.photobucket.com/user/redmond_photos/media/smelt003.jpg.html)
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Yup got love goat island , thanks for post a pic of some ,I got pics but cant find them .
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I'm not really an expert but I've been smelting since I could walk. Back in the day on Champlain it was common to fill buckets with handlines by noon. Now it's mostly limited to small chain lakes in the 'Dacks. These are the smaller inland rainbow smelt. Average 3-7 inches, I've caught them to 9 inches.
I use ultralight jig poles with large guides, with the smoothest micro (500 series usually) reels I can find. I usually fish them in 40-130 feet of water so the water can build up in the guides fast, especially if you're mobile. Also, they get off VERY easy if you take the pressure off. Also if they're just holding onto the bait and not the hook and the line jerks. Smooth retrieve is KEY.
For rigs, it depends. The old stand-by is a vertical rig with small flies attached to loops.
Think swivel>6-10 inches of line> loop with a quick connect clip and fly attached>6-10 inches of line> repeat> 6-10 inches of line> 1/2 ounce sinker on the bottom.
SMALL jigs also work on the same rig. If they are suspended, two split-shots on the bottom instead of a big egg sinker help take the tension off the pole.
As others have said, Hali's with chains work wonders, Swedish Pimples work well at times, and my super duper ultra secret lure...a small Buckshot spoon.
As far as colors, Red flies, Blue Jigs, and blue and silver spoon type lures seem to produce most often.
I always use spikes to catch the first and cut the sides off that one into thin strips for whatever lure I'm using.
Also, KEEP YOUR DRAG LOOSE. Where there's smelt, there's probably trout and salmon. Where I go, 10+ lb lakers are commonly hitting smelt setups.
As with any kind of fishing, a flasher can make the difference between being skunked and blasting several hundred. High gain, look for suspended bands of fish. Move until you see them unless you know they're hunkered on bottom.
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Tiny tungsten jigs with a small chunk of fathead meat
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Halis with a couple small jigs tipped with wax worm, or small pieces of perch meat😊
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Those things are huge.
You ever get into a school of caplin down there? I have not had a feed of them in many years. Remember scooping them up on the rocky shorelines on Bell Island NFLD when I was a youngster.
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I try not to go with too tiny of a jig, cuz sometimes I merely hook them by the bend of the hook and their tooth.
I usually do better night fishing for smelt. sometimes day bite can be just as productive but night time is way more consistent for me.
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fished both fresh and saltwater smelts. both love glow halis and cut bait. i rig a hali on the bottom w/ a glow teardrop 12in. above that. my biggest freshwater was on a 3in. shiner in 5ft. of water on a tip up set for brookies. was 14in.! was about 25yrs. ago. tho. got some last winter about 10-12in. keep them for big togue bait.