RUNNING FOR THE SMELT
Good year for tiny fish brings fishermen into Lake Superior
Superior — A stunningly beautiful sunset has painted the sky above Lake Superior pink and orange as if leaping from the palette of an Impressionist, but that’s not why Jake Mohr and his 9-year-old son, Canyon, are out on the slip of land called Wisconsin Point.
An almost imperceptible breeze comes off the lake and the temperature is a balmy 50-something — heaven for a spring evening in northwestern Wisconsin. But that’s not why Jake Mohr is out here.
He’s standing on a concrete breakwater wearing rubber gloves and pulling a large drop net out of the water every minute or so for one tasty reason.
“These guys,” he said pointing to plastic 5-gallon buckets filled with wiggling slices of silver. Smelt. After relatively poor smelt runs in the last few years,
tiny fish are back and so are the smelt anglers.
“This is an awesome year for smelt,” said Steve Dinda, owner of the Bait Box in Superior, who quickly sold out of his smelt fishing equipment a few weeks ago. “I haven’t had smelt in the shop here for two years. We’ve had two years of cold and ice.”
Once word got out that this season’s smelt run is turning out to be a good one, Dinda began getting calls from anglers in Rice Lake, Eau Claire, the Twin Cities and elsewhere.
Carolyn Swartz, owner of Angler’s All in Ashland, said it’s been a strong season, though it’s sometimes hard to tell just where the smelt are moving in Lake Superior. Sometimes Ashland is a good place to find them, sometimes it’s Superior. The season started a few weeks ago and is coming to a close soon, though just when is up to the smelt.
“Our phone rings off the wall this time of year,” Swartz said in a phone interview. “We have people who come from Iowa, they come from all over. Sometimes they hit it right and sometimes they don’t.”
Why all the fuss for something so tiny?
Like deer hunting, it’s something to do with family and friends, a tradition that dates back decades in Wisconsin. Smelt anglers on Lake Superior and Lake Michigan either use seine nets, wading into the water to catch the fish, or drop nets from a pier or dock to catch their quarry. Seine netters will often build bonfires on the beach to provide light and to warm themselves after splashing through 40-degree water.
The tradition isn’t what it used to be because smelt fishing on Wisconsin waters is nowhere near what it was decades ago.
“I’ve heard stories of guys driving up from downstate with rerigged school buses with cattle tanks inside and spreading the fish as manure on farm fields. There were so many you didn’t know what to do with them,” said Jared Myers, a Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist in Bayfield. “It hasn’t been the angler harvest that influenced the smelt, it was predation by other species. You don’t see a lot of big smelt any more.”
On an evening last week on Wisconsin Point in Superior, several bonfires were burning on the beach as groups fanned out in the water to pull seine nets. Nearby half a dozen drop nets were raised and lowered from homemade wooden booms attached to the railing on the breakwater that divided Wisconsin and Minnesota waters. Men — there were no women — usually worked in tandem, with one person raising and lowering the net while another scooped out fish.
‘Bring a bucket’
Small lights hung down next to the water and as drop nets were pulled up, sparkling smelt bounced in the air or dangled from the nets like acrobats illuminated by the flashlights.
“It’s like Cirque du Soleil,” said Mike Mohr, Jake Mohr’s uncle, who was smelt fishing for the first time. “Jake texted me and said ‘You better get out here. And bring a bucket.’ ”
Gary Hopkins and his 49-year-old son, Mike, drove up from Racine with their smelting equipment to visit family and to fish.
“I just had one pull up and I counted 117 smelt,” a thrilled Gary Hopkins said. “It’s the excitement, the anticipation. I freeze ’em, I fry ’em, I give ’em away.”
Mike Hopkins likes the camaraderie, meeting people and hanging out with others who love to fish for smelt just as much as he does. Among the necessary equipment for smelting is a cooler to hold cold beverages.
As Mike Hopkins pulled up the drop net from the dark water of Lake Superior, which shimmered under a half moon, his father excitedly picked up a net on a long pole to scoop up the fish.
“It’s like Christmas. You never know what you’re going to get,” said Gary Hopkins.
Water temperature key
Smelt are drawn to the shores of Lake Superior and its tributaries like the Brule and Nemadji rivers in Douglas County to spawn at this time of year, waiting for water temperatures between 40 and 50 degrees, said Paul Piszczek, a senior fisheries biologist for the DNR based in Superior.
Smelt aren’t supposed to be in the Great Lakes. The nonnative species showed up in Lake Michigan after freshwater smelt from Maine were stocked in Crystal Lake, Mich., in 1912, according to the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. Some of those fish escaped, and the first recorded catch of smelt in Lake Michigan was in 1926.
The smelt population grew rapidly in Lake Michigan and began showing up in Lake Superior in the 1930s, first seen in the eastern part of the lake near Whitefish Bay and then moving to the western edge. In the last century, smelt populations surged and ebbed.
“Smelt are kind of a double-edged sword. A lot of folks forget they’re an exotic species,” said Myers, pointing out that smelt can be a significant predator in the Great Lakes because of their density.
“You have a lot of little mouths swimming around preying on larval fish. The cumulative effect on other species is big.”
An invasive species
Because smelt are considered an invasive species, anglers are allowed to take an unlimited amount between April 1 and May 25 in Wisconsin waters. And they do. “You can fill a 5-gallon bucket in one haul. Typically for most anglers, when there’s a lot of fish everyone gets excited,” Piszczek said. “I think it’s the sheer volume. When the run is on, it’s on. By the time you prepare them and fry them in a good beer batter recipe they’re outstanding.”
Since smelt spawn at night, that’s when anglers come out. Though when the season is in full swing, cars and pickup trucks fill the parking areas along Wisconsin Point in Superior and folks arrive in the afternoon to make sure they get a spot to set up their drop nets or stake areas to seine.
They’re out even if it’s cold and windy, though seinthe ers can’t fish when there are waves.
Steve Trianowski, who lives in Superior, estimated he has fished for smelt eight to 10 times this season, something he began doing four years ago. He eats the smelt he catches and uses them for bait. He fishes alone, pulling up the drop net with his left hand and using a scoop he made from a spaghetti strainer and paint roller extension with his right.
“My dad would tell me stories about how he used to do this all the time when he was a kid,” said Trianowski. “I like coming and hanging out with guys you see only once a year when the smelt are running.”
“This is an awesome year for smelt. I haven’t had smelt in the shop here for two years. We’ve had two years of cold and ice.”
Steve Dinda, owner of the Bait Box in Superior “I just had one pull up and I counted 117 smelt. It’s the excitement, the anticipation. I freeze ’em, I fry ’em, I give ’em away.”
Gary Hopkins