NDR - Any ice in Maine by Merrymeeting Bay for the smelt camps yet?

Chris Finch

Chris Finch

Well-known member
just seeing if there is a chance for smelt fishing before christmas this year.

i go up there once a year with my buddies to eat at Gritties, drool at llbean and kittery, and catch some smelt (not to mention drinking a few beers in the shanty :)

any info would be helpful
thanks, Chris
 
Well, you never know when we'll get a week of 10 degree nights and freezing days--and that will lock things up pretty fast.

But this morning at my house 10 miles north of MMB is was 61 degrees at 6 am, and we probably got an inch or more of warm rain last night. There was a bit of skim ice in the coves on the Bay a week ago, but it's surely gone now.

I wouldn't bet on ice before Christmas--but if it comes, I think the smelting will be pretty good. Already starting to see signs of mergansers and other fish eaters moving into the usual smelt feeding areas. All we need is the ice to let us get at them.
 
thanks for the info we are definetly getting ready to get up there but i guess you are having the same weather as us.

we did ok last year me and three buddies got 100 smelts for the tide, but we are hoping to get more so we can save some for fluke bait in the summer.

can't wait to see Maine again
 
believe me the smelt is the secret bait, i only save about ten a year because that all i forget about in the depths of my freezer, then i find them in june when the doormats are in the sound
 
I dont think I could forget about ten smelts in my freezer the way my friend cooks them up hot out of the fryalator with a little fish chick batter.


I could see them being a deadly fluke bait, but I would fall back on Snapper Blues which dont taste bad either, but are not in the same class as smelts.

Bob
 
Another way to cook smelts:
Japanese-Style Grilled Smelt
Marinate whole smelt for about 30 minutes in a mixture of 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup cooking sake, 1 tsp sugar and small amount of grated fresh ginger.
Place a wire rack on a cookie tray. Place smelts on wrack and back on 400 degrees, brushing with marinating sauce often, until done.

If you have a Super H-Mart in your area, they have frozen smelt for sale year round. We buy a couple of bags everytime we go to Atlanta.
 
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oh that japanese style smelt sounds great.

Carl once you get fresh smelt it is extremely hard to eat the frozen stuff, if you come up north during the winter you should definety spend a tide in a smelt shanty that will give me an excuse to go back up there

but remember the first person to pull a smelt through the ice has to bite the head off for good luck
my girlfriend didn't believe me, the first time i brought her. i got the first smelt and bit the head off

the best part was next year she got the first smelt haha
 
Smelt sashimi, sounds good to me!
I remember guys up in PA going for smelt with dip nets. We never did it but it sounded fun.
The first time I heard about ice fishing for them was when I was on an evaluation team for the NH Coastal Program back in 2006. Appearently it is popular around Coastal NH. Sounds like great fun too me, I used to do a pile of ice fishing in PA.
 
I don't know whether "ice-fishing" is the proper term for catching smelts through the ice. Up here, we distinguish between going "ice-fishing", which might include chasing anything from pumpkinseeds to brook trout to pike to cusk, and "smelting", which is a highly specialized activity that can only be properly pursued with a suitable amount of alcohol and something from the fall hunting season cooking in the shack. When "ice fishing" the point of the exercise is to catch fish, and while you might otherwise enjoy yourself, you never lose sight of your objective. Smelting is more like going to a frat party on the ice, where instead of some kind of party game in the basement, there is a hole in the ice with some fishing lines somewhere near the party.

I actually don't like smelting much--but I love eating smelts.
 
I don't know whether "ice-fishing" is the proper term for catching smelts through the ice. Up here, we distinguish between going "ice-fishing", which might include chasing anything from pumpkinseeds to brook trout to pike to cusk, and "smelting", which is a highly specialized activity that can only be properly pursued with a suitable amount of alcohol and something from the fall hunting season cooking in the shack. When "ice fishing" the point of the exercise is to catch fish, and while you might otherwise enjoy yourself, you never lose sight of your objective. Smelting is more like going to a frat party on the ice, where instead of some kind of party game in the basement, there is a hole in the ice with some fishing lines somewhere near the party.

I actually don't like smelting much--but I love eating smelts. Hunter keeps threatening to take me....
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I always figure it takes a big pair to go onto the ice on the Bay-the tide shift and moving water there make me unwilling to walk on that ice-Smelts are good, but salt water ice is just not worth it...

Hutch
 
ice fishing and smelting are different, i always remember everything i did the next morning after going ice fishing but the smelt trip some how always ends up fuzzy.

both activities are fun though smelting holds a special place in my heart
 
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but remember the first person to pull a smelt through the ice has to bite the head off for good luck
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In that case, even if I have a smelt jerking my rod around, my line will stay in the water till somebody else gets a bite and hauls theirs in first..
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Dave!!!!!! Some how that doesn't surprize me. How does that saying go? Age and experience will beat youth and ????? Oh well I used to remember.
 
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