In the Smelt Shack

There’s a winter tradition here in Maine we call “smelting”. It’s how we refer to the catching of a rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) through the ice on estuaries where freshwater rivers flow into the sea. Smelt are found both in the ocean and landlocked in fresh water (though the freshwater fish are considerably smaller). When we go smelting we’re after these sea-run fish. (as opposed to “dip-netting for smelt” in the spring, a freshwater activity).

We rent small shacks — maybe 8x10” or so — on the river hardwater below the head of tide. The shacks are equipped with small wood stoves and have a trough cut through the ice at the foot of both the left and right side walls. You spend a tide fishing for them as they move from saltwater into freshwater to feed.

Last week we started at 8:30 pm and fished all 6 hours of the rising tide.

Over the course of those six hours, as the tide came in, the shack and the ice it was sitting on, rose more than 8 feet. Then the whole thing reversed as a

new crop of anglers showed up to fish the outgoing tide.

We left there that evening with 30 smelt, which is just a modest harvest. We’ve had nights with no smelt at all and nights with 3 times this amount. But it’s so much fun and these fish are really delicious. They smell, incredibly, like watermelon — even after several days in the refrigerator.

This time of year the abdominal cavity of the males are swollen with milt packets and the females are ripe with roe — they spawn in the early spring — so when I clean them I keep all of that and use it for fish cakes, before cooking the smelt themselves. I even use the heads to make a fish stock, which I like for Asian inspired dishes.

If you ever visit Maine in the winter, be sure to sign up for an evening tide at one of the many smelt shacks. They provide everything you need, so you don’t even have to bring any gear or bait.

It’s one more way to celebrate the long winter and to eat from the bounty that the natural world provides.