He who smelt it... Fish number 3!

Dave went out last weekend on his first solo excursion on The Quest. If you recall our rules dictate that when possible we'll fish together but solo trips count.

During the smelt run villages of shantys spring up

Dave fished in Durham on the Oyster River and in a short time had iced over a dozen smelt, plenty for a meal. We'll be eating them for breakfast on Sunday and of course we'll report back.

Fishing for smelt is one of the most dangerous ways to icefish, because it's done on tidal rivers that go up and down. It is important to bring your saltwater fishing license and make sure your life insurance is paid up.

The technique is pretty simple, if the smelt are there, fish with tiny jigs tipped with sea worms. These nasty leggy teethy worms are yummy if you are a smelt. Smelt travel in large schools and anglers rarely count them but measure them by the quart. Luckily for us, we are not required to eat a large volume of fish, a dozen will be plenty.

A unique thing about fresh smelt is that they smell just like cucumbers, not at all fishy like one might expect.

We'll share a recipe and more details later!