Is your favorite fish to eat, seabass?

[Angrboda]

I used to really enjoy catching smelt and enjoying the fresh smelt fry as a kid.

How to catch smelt:

Smelt generally enter streams in mid to late April when the water in the tributaries warms into the upper 40 degree F range.  Smelt are light sensitive and run in shallow water at night, so most smelting takes place at night, when the fish are moving into the streams.

Smelt can rarely jump over the first set of rapids upstream from the mouth, which is why the best netting is usually near the lake.  The equipment is simple: a pair of hip boots or waders, a 1ong-handled net, and a bucket for the netted fish.  Wade into the stream near the mouth and sweep your net through water behind riffles, boulders, or anything else that blocks the current and gives smelt a place to rest as they try to swim upstream.  Some people also pull a seine net for smelt along the beach at Park Point in Duluth.

Smelt on the North Shore