Smelts

[TerJr 12]

Smelts were pretty good tonight (yesterday at this point, Thursday evening...). I netted 2 dozen in half an hour, 11:30-12:00. Lots of folks at the mouth of McVickers. Maybe not full on yet, but every 5 or 6 dips I'd net one. A couple times caught two at once. A few 8/9 inchers. Shout out to the nice guy who caught his fill and offered me a headlamp for free. Very kind. 

[Snag??? 173]

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[Fishog 215]

1 hour ago, Snag??? said:

I recall my grandfather use to use them as fertilizer in garden same with white suckers. Boy how times change, I remember mouth McKenzie one year there was a guy cooking smelts on a cast iron pan on top of 45 gal drum/fire pit. He was so loaded he was serving non cooked or cleaned smelts. Last year the 6 th was prime time even though it varies year to year.

Yup my dad would but them in our garden. We would have every seagull coming for a free meal. LOL

[PajamaSquirrel 20]

The smelts are definitely running and the word is out.  We went to McKenzie last night and its the first time ever I've walked in on a snow covered trail.  We got there about 11:00 and had 4 smelts in the bucket by 11:30 😞 Around  midnight everyone else started arriving and so did the smelts.  By 1:00 we had our 1/4 pail and were probably the first to leave as more and more people continued to arrive.  Very strong current had us dipping in a different spot this year.  We saw one person on the other side go for an unintentional swim and were worried for a minute but I believe they had a life jacket on.  Good times! 😁

 

If you were thinking about going, now is definitely the time!

Cheers

[Foozer 194]

Maybe it’s just me but…..

If 4 individual smelts in a half hour, and a 1/4 pail in two hours from 11pm to 1am, means they are running good, I’ll have to find something else to do.

 

I checked out McVicars after 11:00.  Some people there swinging away and just one guy turned and put 1 in his bucket.

 

Next stop was Current River.  About 15-20 people there.  A few dipping. And the odd one or two single smelts were dropped in a pail by the group closest to the dock. I left at midnight not even bothering to take out the gear.  A bunch of others all gave up at midnight too.

 

Drove out to McKenzie to see if it was any better.  I was there for about a 1/2 hour. Plenty of people out, parking was lined up along the road, walked the snow covered trail and watched a few people out in chest waders dipping one or two fish every other scoop, and others chasing single smelts in the shallows.  Again, didn’t even bother to bring the gear down to the river.  Got home around 1:45am.

 

Maybe I’ll try one last time next Tues or Wed after the weekend rains hopefully warm things up a bit and the water comes down a little.  If nothing then, the dip net goes back to the garage rafters till next year.

 

 

 

 

[Croat 28]

Thnx for report Foozer i did couple scoops at vicars last night around 11.30 and nothing gonna try tomorrow night

 

[Colep123 9]

4 hours ago, Foozer said:

Maybe it’s just me but…..

If 4 individual smelts in a half hour, and a 1/4 pail in two hours from 11pm to 1am, means they are running good, I’ll have to find something else to do.

 

I checked out McVicars after 11:00.  Some people there swinging away and just one guy turned and put 1 in his bucket.

 

Next stop was Current River.  About 15-20 people there.  A few dipping. And the odd one or two single smelts were dropped in a pail by the group closest to the dock. I left at midnight not even bothering to take out the gear.  A bunch of others all gave up at midnight too.

 

Drove out to McKenzie to see if it was any better.  I was there for about a 1/2 hour. Plenty of people out, parking was lined up along the road, walked the snow covered trail and watched a few people out in chest waders dipping one or two fish every other scoop, and others chasing single smelts in the shallows.  Again, didn’t even bother to bring the gear down to the river.  Got home around 1:45am.

 

Maybe I’ll try one last time next Tues or Wed after the weekend rains hopefully warm things up a bit and the water comes down a little.  If nothing then, the dip net goes back to the garage rafters till next year.

 

 

 

 

Went to mcviar lastnight. Netted 48 of them within an hour. most of them were in deeper spots. If I had waders I would’ve walked in the middle of the river 

[hunt or be hunted 59]

Went out fri & Sat night for smelts, stopped at current river, mcvicks, McKenzie and even a couple smaller creeks that get the odd run of smelts, did not net a single smelt, they guys out their swinging their nets getting mabey 1-2 smelts every 4-5 passes of their net is sure not the smelt run everyone is sayn…………… when the smelts are running and I’m sure most guys will agree to this, it should be 1-2 dozen a scope per pass and on a good year I’ve literally done 7-8 dozen a pass, so in my opinion I would not say the smelts are running good at all by any means. I’m sure once the water temps warm up this week we should see a better thicker run, will post how I do.

[sinker7 114]

Went last night to McVicars .... spent over 2 hours there. With 2 nets going we put a whopping 6 smelts(all small males) in the pail .. LOL. Lots of elbow room on the river as at best there were maybe a dozen people there at any one time. As the night rolled on quite a few guys stopped by who had been making the rounds to Current River and MacKenzie  and they all had the same report ....  virtually none were being caught.

[Croat 28]

My buddy went to vicars and current last night said nothing there they then went to Mckenzie got alot there so they should be starting in day or two in town

[Croat 28]

took my buddy 20 mins to get these

[Feldwebel Wolfenstool 80]

..funny story....friend of mine.  Wedding Day.  Hubbie started drinking at 9 a.m. After the service, he passed out, leaving her a tub of smelts to clean....

[PkdR 11]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:14 AM, Croat said:

took my buddy 20 mins to get these

Any idea which river? 

[Feldwebel Wolfenstool 80]

https://www.justcaviar.com/caviar-smelt-roe-masago-style-wild-frozen/

[gonefishing 1]

Coming in good tonight at the Mackenzie. 

 

[Zackcorbin1401 541]

Been off and on for a few weeks now

[cows4milk 3]

Monday night (May 15) my son and I tried our luck once again after a few sparse nights over the last couple weeks.  We headed out around 1 am. 

 

McVicar was quiet, no smelts and noone attempting to catch them. Stopped at the south side of the Current River mouth, a few people dipping and we got a small amount - enough to cover a pail bottom for 30 minutes work. 

Headed out to McKenzie - got there around 3 am - and were fortunate to find the smelt run in full swing - we along with a few others were able to fill each pail in a half hour - every dip of the net brought in fish.  Our best dips had 20 - 40 smelt landed. 

 

Still surprised to be catching  smelt this late on the calendar - and it was warm last night - around 20C with a warm breeze.

 

Guessing they will still run for a few days, was a strong run last night.