i just got home from vacation to maine. my father and brother took me ice fishing for smelt. it was really awesome. i never thought in a million yrs you can catch smelt ice fishing for them.
what we do is sit in ice houses with 2 long trenches on each side of the house. we hang up a board on the side wall over the cut out holes. on the board they have 6 cheap fly reels spooled with ice fishing line, then 4lb fishing line with ice fishing jigs. for bait we chopped up blood worms and put them on our hooks. drop our lines at all depths just sit back and watch them for hits.
the 1st night between 16 of us that went we caught 400 total smelt, ifor 5 hrs of fishing. the next night when just my brother and i went, we filled a 5 gallon bucket in 3 hrs. what was really cool was when you looked down hole and watched the smelt swim by.
ray, musky, i when i go back in august to help my dad and his friend get thereboat and traps ready for the season. ill bring you guys home some lobster.