The Great Smelt Caper

Fish Report: 4/20/04

By John A. Walker

Well, the smelt were running heavy for one night, but it soon came to a screeching halt! Last Friday night it seems they were getting smelt like the good old days for a few hours. Saturday night you had to work for them and then by Sunday they were few and far between. Of course by Sunday all the rest of the snow had melted in the woods and the water had come up and was running over the bank in places.

We did manage one good feed and a few left over for the daughter that wanted some. If things work out like they did years ago they should run this weekend east of the Garden Peninsula. I still have some hope they will run again because usually during and right at the end of a good smelt run the suckers start into the creeks and we never saw a sucker.

As we were heading out to check some creeks at daylight it dawned on me what was missing from years ago. It used to be a pattern to head out and stop at Pistol Pete's at Thompson for a trucker's breakfast before you hit the streams. Of course for you who remember, after stopping there you were usually too full to walk very far until it wore off. Those were the days when an order of fried potatoes were a man size order and if you went away hungry it was because your arm got sore lifting your fork.

I have to laugh because sometimes in life things never change. In the area where we were looking for some smelt there were two rivers plus the streams come into the rivers. So needless to say there was enough room for all of those that wanted to dip and see if there was any smelt running. Next to me were a grandma and grandpa, plus their son and his wife, along with their two youngest children. They were catching one or two smelt every five-six dips or so, but it would take you a week to catch a meal at this rate.

They had been there awhile when another party came off the bridge, who knew this family that was there, and took a place right next to where they were dipping and letting the small grandkids take the smelt out of the net. And I mean right next to them.

Then like it was the normal way to do things he took his long handled dip net and reached over and started dipping right it front of grandpa for smelt. Really it was a good thing that life has changed and now we have to be politically correct or else years ago this party would have been scuba diving for smelt out in the river.

But in life some things change and yet some things never change.

Do you realize how well organized I must be? After I received a call there were a few smelt in I had to have a crash course of hide and seek to see where my unused for years smelt net was. Now when you are a normal Yooper with three sheds behind your house, along with a garage and a basement with two storage rooms, this could prove to be a project. But after finding three handles with nothing on the other end I found my nets and hip boots. I even had some gas left for my Coleman lantern. Plus I found some stick matches that were so long waiting for the smelt to run again the color on the box was all faded off and not once did I have to ask Wifee, "Do you know where my smelt fishing gear is?"

But this is not the best part, after I can't recall how many years since I used them last; I had to locate the old pair of barber scissors that I used to clean smelt. Now I know years ago they were in that brown flower pot that was over the window by the sink in the basement. The first thing was to locate the flower pot, which after a small search I finally located. But the scissors were no longer in the flower pot!

I then went to plan B and tried to remember where I had moved them to umpteen years ago. Having the skill and the memories that I have, and knowing Wifee usually didn't clean my tool area, there was always hope. And as luck would have it I found them right where I had placed them it case I should ever need them again.

So get ready for this weekend because it may be now or never for smelt in our area.