Holy Smelt

[Twill23]

Now if i would of been standing around the dock today and someone would of told me a big story about a 17lb lake trout that had 68 single smelt in its stomach i would of laughed at him and not believed a word the man was saying. Well now im the guy telling the story. Yesterday we ran out of Rockport(Lake Huron north of Alpena) out to the wreck. We ended the short evening trip with our limit of lake trout(4 of us) including a dandy. Measured right at 34inches and weighed in at 16.8 lbs. Now i normally don't stick around to help clean fish cause, well truthfully, im lazy. But today i did. We saved the largest to clean last and opened it up. I could not believe me eyes. It's stomach was HUGE. Softball girth and near football length. We opened up the stomach to find it totally jam packed full of fresh smelt. 68 to be exact. Talk about some serious bait fish.

[somethin' fishy]

WOW! Now that is cool!. Fried smelt for an appetizer while the laker is on the grill! Thanks for the story and the pic.

[Adam Bomb]

Damn, i knew they were eating machines, but thats got to take the cake. Amazing that he bit your offering!

[Twill23]

Yea lol. I still don't believe it everytime I think about it

[hfitch]

WOW! Now that is cool!. Fried smelt for an appetizer while the laker is on the grill! Thanks for the story and the pic.

Now that's just gross!! But it made me chuckle!

[jimcr]

how much did it weight with out the smelt??

[Twill23]

I have no idea stomach was checked after we cleaned it

[Nailer]

Thanks for sharing. Very cool.

[SPOONWASHER]

Thats insane!! Were you guys jigging or trolling?

[Twill23]

Trolling. There is really no jigging done in our area. It came on a tin can and a green fly with a spinner in front of it.

[joelsanders]

Yummy!

[SPOONWASHER]

Trolling. There is really no jigging done in our area. It came on a tin can and a green fly with a spinner in front of it.

Ok thanks I was just wondering cuz I heard of some people jigging reefs to the south of you.

[Twill23]

O yea? Where at?

[SPOONWASHER]

Just south from like Alpena down to Black River. Guess theres a reef out by the Canadian border.

[Twill23]

Hmmm Idk about that. There's a pretty small group of us that consistently fish out there. It would most likely be an out-of-towner. I'd say there is prolly 6 of us that fish there outside of tournament time.

[Twill23]

The actual reef is apart of the lake trout refuge. But there's good structure on the edge of it, 39 miles out.

[SPOONWASHER]

Yeah who knows my grandpa lives right on the Black River and some guys were saying they were jiggin for lakers like 15 miles out on some reef. They were locals but you never know. Did you guys walleye fish much this year? Heard TB was hot.

[Twill23]

Yessir, actual went out last three days. Ryan Sagady of Bay Sportfishing was in the area and we hooked up and got into some real nice fish. One at 8lbs. I think 10 Friday 8 Saturday and 6 today. But wind played a huge factor.

[SPOONWASHER]

Sounds like a blastt! The average size up there is much larger then Saginaw and I love the fact you have a legitimate chance at a big 'eye. We fished TB the weekend of the Fourth of July and it was pretty slow.

[Twill23]

Yea its hit an miss. We never caught more than 3 fish at any one spot.

[Fresh spawn]

The average size up there is much larger then Saginaw

There and around the Thumb(Grindstone/Port Austin). The bay has almost to many walleye anymore, you see some scrawny ones all through the year. The heavy angler harvest(and it is HEAVY) is probably a good thing, and is what keeps them from over-eating. Between them and the overabundance of lakers, the bait pods take quite the hit.

[A-Fishy-Anado]

Great Pic TJ.

[Twill23]

Between them and the overabundance of lakers, the bait pods take quite the hit.

The only good thing that i can possibly see is the huge rise in the number of smelt we are seeing in our area. Both fish feed on the same bait, gobies and smelt(as well as blues and greys). All of which are thriving at this time. You cant argue with the survey nets, all you can do is smile!

[Priority1]

TJ, Nice pic and report.

[heavymetal]

Twill23,nice report and picture...Reminds me of a laker I caught on Torch Lk,a bit over 20lb`s,37"...Had 3 10" lake herring in her gut, and still hit my offering.An 18 chart/silver rapala..Like your pic,I was very impressed at there ability to gorge themselves. Thanks, Gary