Went last night and the smelt were dancin under the light and laughin at me.....couldn't buy a hit, used frozen grass shrimp(fresh were gone) I tried without the light too but nothin doin. Do you think they were just moody or was it the bait?

Oh man, it happened to me before. I dunno the solution to it. Chum a bit..

If they're not diggin the grass shrimp try a piece of seaworm or if you can manage to get one you can cut that up and use it for bait also.

are you using just a hook? seriuosly, try a small swedish pimple on the end. The shine will attract them and the bait should get them to bite.

I had some old grass shrimp i dropped them down every once in a while but the smelt just swam around them, by the way can somebody pm me as to where u can catch'em at marina bay....took a drive out there the other night couldn't figure out where they might let u fish....thanx TDF I'll try that next time around, by the way how much are the smelt camps and do they have a web site?

James Eddy Smelt Camp

Some General Info

Another Decent Article

are there any smelt camps closer to home? anything in the MA or NH areas?

I used to do a lot of smelt fishing with my grandfather up in Vermont. I only assume that some of the smelt were ocean run smelt that came up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Lake Champlain, but much of the stock were strickly fresh water fish that summered in the deeper reaches of Lake Champlain. I did catch an occasional summer smelt while fishing Lake Trout and Salmon off of down riggers.

I do love a fresh "mess" of smelt during the winter. I guess I will have to give a smelt camp a try. Growing up, I just used family and friend owned shanties. But would be willing to give one of these camps a try.

A little tip for bait. At least what worked best in Vermont. After you catch the first one (we usually used shiners) to catch a few. But the best bait is a small fillet of smelt. We would fillet off the last 1 - 1 1/2 inches of the smelt towards the tail. This bait drove the smelt wild, catching 2 to 1 over the shiners. And the bait is rugged and would last for 6 or more smelt, before having to cut another chunk. So if nothing else is working, cutting them up makes 'em canniblistic in a big way.

I was finally able to post a tip about something I know....lol

-IWK

Thanx Tdf the camps sound interesting looks like i'll have to take a road trip during the winter:D

anyone every live-line smelt? Is it legal? what-about chunking?

I know they are a taste fish, but this time of year my mind is on stripers.

figured I could eat a bunch, freeze a bunch and still have a bunch left for fishing.

-IWK

Try it. Stripers eat smelts and other baitfish.