its time for ice fishing. (Yarmouth: safe, teach, places)

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by tankratt

What, is the deal? do smelt only bite at night?

The place we fish is kind of a quirky place. The smelts don't generally bite there at all during the day. They may on a dark cloudy day but if it's bright you won't catch any. As soon as the sun goes down they bite. We only fish there at night now as the day has always been slow. The tide doesn't make much difference there either except a couple of times during the month. It only rises and falls about three or four feet during a normal tide. Other places will rise and fall 10 feet or more.

[spose]

Originally Posted by island mermaid

Nope, it really depends upon the tide in different areas. Some areas will find they're running better on an incoming while other places will do better on an outgoing. I don't think there's any real science to it. Of course water temp, moon phases have been said to be a factor. I think it's hit or miss. Some times the fish are found close to the surface and other times they're running deeper. I think people tend to go at night after work or as a recreational thing. The weekend days are equally busy as people will bring their families out on the ice for the day. It's a lot like tail-gating in a way. There are people that bring out little grills to cook on and a cooler full of beer or whatever. You can send your kids outside on recon missions to listen outside of other peoples shacks for signs of fish being caught. Although when the fish are running hard, everybody will be whooping it up! It's very lively when the smelts are running! There are little smelt shack rentals on a lot of rivers. They look like little shanty towns. It doesn't cost much for a night of fun. I don't even remember what we last paid for a night of fun. Not a lot, maybe $35? But you stay from one tide till the next, so 6 hours or so. You can buy your bait right there. There's a tally board in the office with people names, dates, how many were caught at what time of day. It's a lot of fun because it's like a big party on the ice at night.


YouTube - Smelting 3

I don't know about this kind of smelting!! Claustrophobia setting in watching it? Or maybe because this is waaaaaaay different from what I remember as a child at "Grammy's camp" at the end of a dead-end road, smelting from a brook off a pond, which was (maybe) not quite legal and not quite in season? I really don't know for sure If so, the guilty parties are long gone and I was only a little girl that was happy to just hold a flashlight. I do remember so many good times there though. Crispy smelt "french fries" are only one of so very many! Thank you for bringing back those memories!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by spose

I don't know about this kind of smelting!! Claustrophobia setting in, maybe? But this is waaaaaaay different from what I remember as a child at "Grammy's camp" at the end of a dead-end road, smelting from a brook off a pond, which was very possibly highly illegal and probably off-season. That's okay, though, 'cause the guilty parties are long gone and I was only a little girl that was happy to just hold a flashlight. I do remember so many good times there though. Crispy smelt "french fries" are only one of so very many! Thank you for bringing back those memories!

It may seem small but our shack(208 cu ft) has almost exactly the same interior room as the Apollo Command Module(210 cu ft) and those three guys spent 8 days in that little area! How's that for claustrophobhia!

[Maine Writer]

We used to dip for smelts on the Orrington side of the Penobscot. Dad would stand at the kitchen sink for hours cleaning them. After reading all of this I think I want to go again.

[island mermaid]

I've never dipped but I've heard it's fun.

It's great fun to get a bunch of couples together and rent two camps. We'd fish the guys against the girls. It gets pretty competitive at times with many pranks pulled. All in good fun though. We'd rent the bigger camps with double race holes - 10 -12 lines on each hole.

When I was in my early twenties, I'd go with just a bunch of girlfriends and have blast too. I can't tell you how many things we lost down the race hole after a night of ice drinkin! We lost 2 radios I can remember, a folding chair or two. God only knows what else. We did catch fish though. Plenty of it. There were a couple girls that refused to bait their own hooks or take fish off. No worries, the rest of us took care of them.

Like I said in an earlier post, for people with younger kids it's a fun weekend thing to do. There are lots of other little kids out there, they all play together. Good winter fun and you don't have to freeze. The camp owners at these rental places make sure you're shack is warm when you arrive and there's plenty of firewood right there in your camp or just outside to keep the stove going. Those little places do get hot inside. You'll find yourself opening your door to cool off at times.

Go try it, whether you catch fish or not, it's fun to go. If you've never done it, ask the guy in the camp next to you. It's a very friendly community out there. Everyone is happy to help, assist and give friendly tips.

Enjoy!

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by island mermaid

Maineah is fishing his own camp on the Androscoggin in Brunswick. But just Google smelting camps in your area. The ones we know are further north than where you are. It'd be a ride for you. I'll give you names if you want, you'll have to call ahead to reserve a camp. Sometimes they're booked way ahead of time. Like weeks if you're looking for a weekend.

Yeah, I did just that. we thought we'd check out the smelting in Randolph(like in the video) since that's not as much of a drive. We have to consider leaving the woodstove and the dog for a number of hours.

[tcrackly]

We generally use bloodworms, and the few times I have gone we'd catch either buckets full or a half dozen between us for a full tide. We got too many serious issues going on now to start building a shack for this season. That's principally why I need to go to a ready made set up.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

Yeah, I did just that. we thought we'd check out the smelting in Randolph(like in the video) since that's not as much of a drive. We have to consider leaving the woodstove and the dog for a number of hours.

Bowdoinham would be closer, try Little Fish or Wallentines. Both great places, but please call ahead for reservations. I'd hate to see you drive up and not be able to fish.

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Even if you can find a shack to rent there is no guarantee you'll get any smelts!
It can be very disappointing to pay $ 25.00 a head for a shack and bait and not catch a single smelt. Believe me that happens much more often than catching a pail full. There are several places to rent shacks from Kittery to Calais. As Island Mermaid said just Google smelt camps in Maine and you'll see a big list. If you can go during the week you're much more likely to get a shack to rent.
For every rental shack on a Maine river there are probably 50 private ones. We have built and maintained a smelt shack in one form or another since I was in Junior High School way back in 1971. There have been years when there was no ice, no smelts, no bait, bad storms, below zero MONTHS, early rains, lost shacks, fires etc. There have also been many many beautiful star filled nights, northern lights, crisp cold temperatures, frozen beers, venison on the stove, smelts cooked in the shack, 5 gallon buckets filled with smelts.
Our shack is on the Androscoggin River. It's 2"x2" timber framed with 1/4" luan plywood on it for a shell. It's small (4'X8') with a 6 1/2' foot peaked roof. It's the size of a sheet of plywood so it will fit between the wheel wells of a pickup truck and you can close the tailgate. It's pretty light and easily moved by two middle aged men. We heat it with a propane heater hooked to a 10 pound propane tank fed through a hose in the wall. Light is a Coleman propane lantern. Seating is two folding chairs. We have 8 lines with 1 1/2 ounce sinkers and a single size 8 hook. We also have small jigging rods with monofilament line we use for jigging. The place is quite comfortable for two people. On the coldest nights in Maine, well below zero, you can sit in the shack in just a sweatshirt and fish quite comfortably. It's easily as warm as my house in the shack. We haul the lights, heater, propane and the rest of the gear on and off in a sled. We don't leave anything of value in the shack as ,like anything else, there are thieves on the river too who break in the shacks periodically and steal everything that isn't nailed down.
Smelt shacks differ from lake fishing shanty's in the floor design. Smelt shacks have a race hole which runs the length of the long side of the shack and is from 10 to 15 inches wide. Some bigger shacks will have a race hole on both long sides. The racehole is generally cut with a chainsaw and maintained daily with an ice chisel to keep it open. Skip a few days and you're back to the chainsaw! Lake shanty's have a round hole or two in the floor and the hole is cut with an ice auger.

Bait for smelts depends on one's budget. Some folks use shrimp which is by far the cheapest at a dollar a pound. Some use sand worms which are a bit mushy to retain on a hook. Some use shucked clams. By far the most widely used bait is bloodworms. Bloodworms are running about fifty cents a piece these days.There is also an artificial bloodworm called Fish Bites which is a very good substitute to real bloodworms though they cost more. The best bait is cut sucker but it's hard to get in the winter. Many fishermen will catch suckers in the summer and freeze them for smelt bait. The worm,shrimp or fish is cut into small pieces with a razor blade on a bait board. Then it's just a matter of timing the bite and setting the hook! It's a lot of fun to catch a big pile of smelts. We had days last winter where we filled a 5 gallon pail in just a few hours. Even if you only catch a few it's nice to be sitting on a frozen river, warm and toasty, sipping a beverage, and catching fish!

DH took me smelting on the York river to narrows that he knew as a child. I'm glad he was familiar with them!! We hiked in over the marsh carrying buckets, lantern, radio and fishing gear. ..had to cross fetched up ice floes that ranged from 3' to 18'. Once you're settled and on the ice you have to beware of the big "grave" holes that somone might have cut the night before. The tide ran about 10" average. Pretty spooky stuff when the ice you're on releases from the bottom during the high tide at night. I told the DH I'm too old for that now. I want the "smeltin' village" experience.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

DH took me smelting on the York river to narrows that he knew as a child. I'm glad he was familiar with them!! We hiked in over the marsh carrying buckets, lantern, radio and fishing gear. ..had to cross fetched up ice floes that ranged from 3' to 18'. Once you're settled and on the ice you have to beware of the big "grave" holes that somone might have cut the night before. The tide ran about 10" average. Pretty spooky stuff when the ice you're on releases from the bottom during the high tide at night. I told the DH I'm too old for that now. I want the "smeltin' village" experience.

Definitely, at the rental places they have ramps built down to the river. It's an easy walk down and much safer. I've fished at privately owed camps before that sound just like your experience. The older we get, those falls on the ice are not pleasant and could result in broken bones.