Smelt fishing, Looking for tips

Hey all,

One of my spots where I regularly target lakers is now infested with smelt. I've never targeted them before, but have heard they are good table fare. Rather than ignoring them, I figure I'll take advantage of this opportunity. I've caught a couple once I've downsized my jig, but I can't get enough to make it worth while even though I'm marking schools of them non stop. Is there a certain bait or lure that is used to make the hookups more consistent? Thanks for any info,

Winterfisher

“When life gives you smelts…. Catch as many as you can and eat ‘em.” -me


Use 4lb line or less, light ultra fast action rod, and I use tungsten bugs like simcoe bug. Maybe tipped with a pinhead minnow head or pea sized piece of worm. They can be plentiful, and big whitefish always close by. Need to be lightning fast on the hookset. I got a good feed couple weekends ago maybe 2 hours fishing and had 14 nice ones for lunch. I must have missed 100 bites those buggers are tricky, downsize is the key, as is tungsten.

Good luck.

Tiny tungsten jig my friend uses a strike indicator on a piece of small dowel as the rod.

I wonder if a tiny wad of yarn would get em, maybe their teeth would get snagged.

I have ice fished them before.

Super ultra tiny treble hooks tied 8-10” apart. Use a drop shot to get it all down. Tip the trebles with something tiny like a little piece of minnow or wax worm etc.

Rod were the lightest action we could find. Looks like they are made of clear plastic.

When I did this with a buddy we filled half a five gallon pail in 4 or so hours.

Hali Sukkula or similar is what I use if there are smelt around and I want to catch them. Good bait for for just about anything really and worth having in the box anytime theres small fish around and you want to know what they are. Tip it with something small. EVen a balled up piece of fluff from your hat or gloves does the trick.

Thanks guys, I'll give these tips a try. I didn't know they would be tricky to catch. I missed a ton last time, but maybe that's just how it is. But im sure with downsizing further, ill get on em a bit better. Thanks again

Most definitely not tricky to catch imo. Just need something small enough for them to get it in their mouth so they don’t nip at your presentation. Go as tiny as you can.

we used yarn, the kind for fishing steelhead, small piece on a tear drop jigs and yes the yarn sticks in their teeth and you just shake the smelt off. We fished them shallow so you site fish these smelts. Another good way was to just use the eyes of the smelt on a small tear drop jigs, 1 or 2 or even 3 eyes on the jig worked well, as the eyes get more bites you just load up more. If using minnows we just use the head or tail, the more the minnow got bit the better as it would shred up and again the smelts teeth would get caught up in the shredded minnow. We use to fish smelts a lot in Niagara during the winter and years ago Simcoe had a great winter smelt fishery.

I use a 2 1/2 gallon bucket between my feet and set my noodle rods across the top,1 rigged with a Hali, the other with a tandem teardrop with spikes. The baits can be lightly jigged by just pushing down on the rod right in front of the reel seat. This setup keeps the rods close to your hand for quick response to bites, and a convenient spot to quickly unhook and drop them in the pail. With the teardrop rig, most times you don't even need to touch the fish to unhook,just grab the jig,and shake it into the pail.