Since I have moved here in 2002 a group of us had gone out in Easter or so and always got some. A few years there was no season so didn’t go those years a few years only a few were netted but a couple years back we were filling five gallon buckets pretty easy
They should be starting any day now. I'd say after a warm day tomorrow would get them started, if there are enough of them to make it decent is the question. I can't find any data on projected numbers in OAHE anywhere.
I started going for them in the mid 80's, it was more of a huge drinking party than seriously tying to get them. We really didn't need that many for bait, it was just fun getting shit faced at a bonfire. Ah to be in HS again at a river party, those were the days. Got some really good smelting stories, but a public forum where a lot of people know who I am isn't the place to share them. In the 90's when our nets and waders were trash, and I was a broke college kid, I would befriend tourists and they would give me a bucket full once I showed them how to seine them.
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I did not know that smelt could run? Are they fast?
Ifn you didn't know schmeldt could run,,,,well then you don't know your azz from a whole in the ground. And fast, you wouldn't believe it!!