Higgins Fri Smelt

[FishingJoe]

Hit Higgins Friday night for smelt. West Launch area looked like the Meijers parking lot on Xmas Eve. Fishing was slow, but between two of us we ended up with about 150. They were all up and down the water column, the hard part was getting the bait in front of the biters - which seemed to move up and down all night. Planned to leave at 12:30, but my auger was frozen in the ice. Took about an hour to get it out. Thanks to the 4 guys that helped me out with that little chore if you're reading this. Lessons learned - right?????:rolleyes:

[salmonslammer]

I took the kids up on Sat. evening, got set up in the middle of the pack off of the west launch about 9pm and fished till 11:30. Whopping 15 smelt to show for it. Not sure what I didn't do right, fished with hali on one and glow on the other tipped with a wax worm. Fished the entire water colum too. My 3yo daughters bobber rig was set about 15' down and didn't catch a smelt and only had 3 hits. Now I am thinking that I need to get a light. Is it worth the extra kack that you have to drag out???? How far down do you fish when your using one???? Is location that big of a deal????? I know last year we caught about 300 and never moved. I didnt want to move with the kids so we thoughed it out. I need to go back up later in the week and pick up some for the LSC pike this spring!!!!

[FishingJoe]

The only light I use is my lantern. Generally, I prefer to set up outside the pack toward the deeper edge. I suppose a submerged light might help a little now, with the ice as thick as it is. Friday night the pack kind of grew around me.
I do feel strongly about the value of my Vexilar though. I honestly don't think you can be consistently successful, at least for smelt, without one or at least something similar. I saw fish throughout the water column, but they would only bite at certain levels. For a while they bit at 15', then they shut down and the 25 foot deep fish would bite. This went on all night. For whatever it's worth, the "most consistent" depth was between 18 and 20' over 72 FOW.

[I'llbeoutside]

Arrived about 8 on friday evening and began fishing in about 40' of water. Guys I was fishing w/ did have a light just below the ice. It seemed to help a lot. Closer to the light produced more fish. We fished until about midnight and had approx. 300-400 fish between five guys. Met Tony Y who I've seen post from before on this site. He was a smelt fishing machine. Fished for them again on sat afternoon and they were biting well before dark. Saw Tony Y pull in many doubles and triples. No luck for any lakers on tip-ups or jigging. Good weather and a good time.

[Can't Touch This]

You guys should try the north shore. We went there for 2 nights, a total of 5 hours, between 3 people for 4 hours, and 2 for 1, we had about 250. There might've been 1 or 2 people or shanties somewhat around us(around 100 feet from us). We used 2 lanterns all above the ice, using glow in the dark halis with 1 waxwarm, no more hooks above it. The first night with 3 people in 4 hours we got 130, they were in all the water colums, but they weren't too aggressive, about 320 yards out in 55fow, the falsher said orange from about 5 feet of bottom, to 5 feet below the surface. The second night in 1 hour(lanterns ran out) with only 2 people, same method, this time 300 yards out in 45fow there was fish stacked up majorly, the flasher was almost pure red, all aggressive, we got 120, and lost about another 100 while we were reeling up.

[jig head]

I dont know much about catching smelt with a hook but when I fished for them on sat. afternoon they were biting pretty good I was using smelt eyes. I caught 105 smelt in about 2 hours.it was a great time.

[bloo_gilz]

My buddy & I were new to smelting, but along w/ two other pals we managed about 100 each in four hrs. Sat. nite.We were on west side in lil' Tijuana. This was by far the most hillarious fishing trip I've ever been on !!! We were in 30 fow. Between 5 & 6 we were yanking em from right below the ice !Just flipping em into the hut as fast as we could.These fish were so aggresive it was nearly impossible to use 2 rods!!After dark we got em at all levels.If you don't get a hit in 10 seconds, reel up 2 feet.Great time, great people,can't wait to do it again.All my buddies down here are getting sick of hearing me talk about how awesome it was.Hali on bottom,black or white micro-jig 1 ft. up. Many-many doubles....BG