NH have you...

I have never heard of smelting, how do you do it? Need something to do other than just sit here and use the computer all day! Just checked the therometer, -12! Its a heat wave compared to what we had 2 weeks ago!

NH_Hunter

 edip: we havent had a good run of smelt over here in a long time. last time was back in the early 70's. 1 night we filled the trunk of a 63 chevy. but we cheated. we used a sean. it was a pain when you had to go deep. the far end of the sean. after that we would go to carp river in the u.p. it was a blast. we would leave home at 10 a.m. get to the river just at dark . then we would fill everything we had till 2.a.m. then the long drive home. i have talked to some guys that have fished for them. they would use white tread and a very small hook and a wax worm.  but to sit there and fish all day for a little bucket, it wasnt worth it.  but they do taste very good. we would freze them whole till we wanted a meal. then clean them. 1 guys wife wanted to know how you felet them?????

lets see a recipe or two for these little guys! all i have ever used them for was BAIT!

##%^^&*** it this is the third time I've started this answer!!! 

Tas.... when I type in ALT 0179, which normally gives me an ASCII symbol for degree, I lose everything and go to the Netscape web page!!!!!?????

And again....

NH. there should be some commercial smelt house businesses renting somewhere on Great Bay or in some of the towns with tidal rivers, Contact J.J. Newman at UNH-Sea Grant - 749-1565, she works with smelts and should know where the smelt houses are located. There are lots for rent in the Augusta, ME, area. Once you start asking around, you'll get some leads. Your marine DNR might know too.

 

Sam's Favorite Smelt Frying Batter:

1 cup wheat flour,   1 cup cornmeal,   1 tsp salt, ½ tsp ground black pepper (or to taste),   1 tsp onion powder (optional), mix all dry ingredients well and place in a wide shallow bowl.  Egg Wash: 2 eggs and ¼ cup water beat to a froth and placed in a  second wide shallow bowl.

Pour ¼" peanut oil into an electric skillet and heat to 375 degrees. I do this outside to avoid the oil fog in the air.

I assume that you-all clean your smelts? Yup! clean-em! Remove guts and heads and rinse well.

Take a smelt and roll it in the flour/cornmeal mixture....then coat it with egg wash,   then roll again in the flour/cornmeal mixture....then place in the hot oil.  If you place the smelts in the skillet, head to tail, you can get 8-10 per batch fried at once. Make sure you leave some space between each frying smelt for even heat distribution.  Fry until golden brown. Brown is ok, but by then you are starting to dry out the flesh of the smelts. Some don't like the bones and the fried smelts easily split down the back so the backbone can be removed....but they are so crunchy cooked this way that they may be eaten bones and all and you don't even notice the bones.

I can catch and clean and eat the smelts but I can't catch - clean - fry - then eat smelts...so my wife cooks the smelts.  I do enjoy cold beer with fresh fried smelts. No fu-fu foods, salads- veges - or creamed anything with them...just beer and smelts.  They are excellent as cold, after work/before supper, snacks and they make great fish sandwhiches. And that's all I know. 

Oh..NH...When my boys were just youngsters I'd give them ½ juice glass of beer with fried smelts or boiled crabs/lobsters......And they turned into fine men...absolutely no problems along the way.