Smelt Fishing on inland lake in Minnesota - 2 ft of ice

[Gunflint]

Went night smelt fishing with my wife for the first time to see what we could find. Normally smelt are dip-netted on Lake Superior here in Minnesota. I was trying to copy my Ice Shanty buddies in Maine.

We wet out a bit too early. Nothing on the finder until the sun went down - and then things changed immediately, within seconds it seemed. Huge scools of smelt kept moving through. had a hard time getting them to bite as I had no waxworms. I finally started catching them on a teeny-tiny lipless bait. They were all stuffed with eggs or milt. I may go again tonight.


Setting up with Coleman lantern:




Sun going down




Smelt on the Livescope




Some of the results

[mr.clean]

Gunflint thank you for the trip report and photos. Enjoy the smelt dinners.
 Steve

[Seamonkey84]

Very cool, gotta love seeing fish move through on panoptix. Glad to see you had success, and still have ice !?!

[MT204]

Boy this post sure got my attention.
I'm born and raised in Montana but went to school in Minneapolis back in the early 70's.
My "good" buddies told  me one night that we were going to go fishing up north and I thought great.
So I had my fishing pole and all associated equipment ready to go when they picked me up. Needless to say they laughed and giggle all the way up north.
Well when we got where we were going it became very evident that I wasn't going to need a fishing pole!
Yes my first time smelting, no pole needed.
I still laugh at that.
But then again I guess a pole will work.