First time posting pictures...
We went smelt dipping last weekend and came home with twenty pounds. I had the smoker running Saturday and Sunday. First batch was 4 hours of apple starting at 135 degrees progressing to 185 degrees. Second batch was 3 hours of maple with about the same time. I don't care for fish but wife and coworkers gave thumbs up.
Going in
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj219/rlytton1/IMG_0181_zpsabd6f9f5.jpg) (http://s273.photobucket.com/user/rlytton1/media/IMG_0181_zpsabd6f9f5.jpg.html)
First batch out
(http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj219/rlytton1/IMG_0182_zps0c802172.jpg) (http://s273.photobucket.com/user/rlytton1/media/IMG_0182_zps0c802172.jpg.html)
You need to deep fry them. We used to get them up on Lake Superior years ago but the run is very spotty now.
Those look like some large smelt ! Almost as big as
The herring the commercial fishermen get up here.
Ohh!!
Serious the first batch there you have looks like gold fish.
Yeah I feel that deep fry is the best way to cook it and make it spicy.
Looks like they turned out good but I never did develop a liking for smelt when I lived in Michigan years ago.
I really don't eat much fish but my wife loves it. We only have a few dozen left in the freezer.
The shad are running now and we have a salmon fishing trip planned in a few weeks so who knows what will be next!
They look good but I agree with northshoremn they look huge for smelt. Is there more then one variety of them?
I guess there are different kinds. According to Wiki pacific smelt (Eulachon) that come up the NW rivers can be as long as 12 inches but most are in the 6-8 inch range.