Northwest Fishing Reports

My wife is of Mediterean decent and loves deep fried smelt (the little ones) 4-7 inches.Where can one go to get a few off a dock?

What are smelt?

Like herring....

Good for bait traps for crab....

I had some given to me a few years back. I believe they came form hood canal. Deep fired huh? Never heard of that. They are excellent smoked. I dont really know of any place that sells them, other than for bait. But they have to sell the in Seattle.

Used to be able to jig for them off the boat docks around Skyline in Anacortes. But that was in January or February. Pretty good smoked! Do you light the head or the tail?:geek:

We used to go down to the Cowlitz River in the winter during the smelt run and get them dipping a net along the shore. The limit is was something like 10 lbs. a piece and we more often than not filled our limits every trip. We also fish for them with rod and reel up in Anacortes. We enjoy eating them by breading and then baking them. Delicious! We also use them for Sturgeon bait, Columbia River smelt are great sturgeon bait. As far as I know the season for smelt is always in the winter and the state changes exactly when they open it every year. Some years the season will open early others it will be late and some years it doesn't open at all. There is a smelt fishing derby up in Anacortes every year which is kind of amusing to see. I would suggest looking at the WDFW website for more accurate info.

i went smelting this last year in feb-march down on the cowlitz. We used a dip net and stand on the shore and just dip it in against the current and the smelt swim right in. Well that is what they are supposed to do, we caught 2. got skunked in feb and caught the 2 in the middle of march. The columbia river smelt run has been dismall the last coulple of years, really low numbers. My family use to go down there ten years or so and we the 4 of us would limit out. if i remember correctly the limit was and still is 10lbs.

You can also jig for them at docks up here in the puget sound area. not seattle farther north. Jigging is for surf smelt. La connor and Anacortes are good areas. I heard everett marina was doing really good this season too. but again season is in the winter starting mid-late January and going to late March. Like mallard said check out wdfw. if you search columbia river smelt it will give you reports and what not, but that's during season.

good luck

Like Viet said... The lower cowlitz used to be real easy, I remember just dipping a couple of times and having a full net each time about 15-20 years ago... Recent runs have been really, really bad. (like dropping decimal places)
Those are river smelt. I have seen people getting the saltwater smelt in lower hood canal at night and some other areas....

La Conner is a hot spot when they're running. They're not really anything like a herring. Small fish yes but, the similarity ends there. They're quite tasty, I wouldn't waste them as bait, too many other things to use.

Bodofish wrote:La Conner is a hot spot when they're running. They're not really anything like a herring. Small fish yes but, the similarity ends there. They're quite tasty, I wouldn't waste them as bait, too many other things to use.

They are tasty, but they are probably the best bait you can use for Columbia River Sturgeon.

LaConner is a good bet! I still like to eat them and not use them for bait, however. I gaved up on river smelt as the runs continue their decline. Besides jigging them almost seems like you are really fishing.

cavdad45 wrote: LaConner is a good bet! I still like to eat them and not use them for bait, however. I gaved up on river smelt as the runs continue their decline. Besides jigging them almost seems like you are really fishing.

LaConner is a ton of fun when they are in thick. I use a little 3 ft. ultra light with a few smelt hooks tied on. Kind of like a drop shot setup with multiple hooks.

Yea I hear you can fill up a five gallon bucket of em in no time when they are there. People talk about "dipping" for smelt, basically netting them cause they are so thick...

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Yea I hear you can fill up a five gallon bucket of em in no time when they are there. People talk about "dipping" for smelt, basically netting them cause they are so thick...

Yeah, as long as they are in real good it does not take long to fill a limit. The run of smelt has been drastically declining on the Cowlitz River in recent years. We used to be able to go down to the Cowlitz when it was good and get our limits of smelt in two dips of the net each. There would usually be at least 7 of us and we would have all of our limits in under an hour (10 lbs. a piece). Not anymore though, times change fast. It was a lot of fun barely being able to lift the dip net out of the water because it was so full of fish.

That would be a ton of fun mallard to take a kid out to. They would be in heaven. Everytime I take my little cousins fishing, it's off to lake Washington for perch off a small dock. They love it and never get bored reeling in perch after perch, but they would love scooping up nets full of em...

Sam Kafelafish wrote:That would be a ton of fun mallard to take a kid out to. They would be in heaven. Everytime I take my little cousins fishing, it's off to lake Washington for perch off a small dock. They love it and never get bored reeling in perch after perch, but they would love scooping up nets full of em...

Yeah, heck, I must still be a little kid at heart because I still love to catch any kind of fish no matter how big it is. However you can't beat a large salmon or steelhead.

Yea I'm right there with you mallard. I'll fish for anything. I hope I never see the day where I wont have fun catching fish, regardless of species, but your totally right. Any big trout or bass or perch will never beat a big salmon

Fishing brings out the little kid in all of us. That's part of the magic of our sport.