Better late than never: Lake Superior smelt run is on

DULUTH — They’ve been out this week along the sand beach of Minnesota Point, along the South Pier of the ship canal and at the mouth of the Lester River. Netters, by the dozens, maybe hundreds on warmer nights, are looking to grab their share of silvery smelt.

And on some nights, they are going home with buckets full.

On Tuesday night along the Lester River, the action was a little slower, but netters clad in waders and hip boots and rubber knee boots were hard at it — dipping and scooping, dipping and scooping — as soon as the sun went down. Most of the scoops produced a smelt or two, the better scoops maybe a half-dozen of the 6- to 8-inch silver and black fish.

"I think these are just the males, they’re so small," said Byron Johnson, of Duluth. "The females come later, and they’re bigger, half again as big as these."

Everyone agreed this year's annoyingly long winter and depressingly late spring have delayed the smelt run, maybe as much as two weeks from the usual late-April peak. The water has simply been too cold.

Johnson, 75, knows smelt pretty well. He grew up in Lester Park, not far from the river here, and he's been coming to net his share for nearly 70 years. So far this night, he was just watching and waiting to see when the night's big push upstream started before taking his turn in the water.

"I remember my dad came one day and took me out of school. … We came down and in an hour or two we had garbage cans full of smelt. We had to carry them up to the car in small buckets and dump them in garbage cans because there were so many that we couldn't lift the garbage cans," Johnson said. "We had more than we could handle in a couple hours, so he took me back to school and he went back to work."

Terry Anderson and Drew Hanson, both of Duluth, came to the river Tuesday night just as the run started, and Hanson was having pretty good luck with his dips.

"It's kind of fun just to people-watch out here," Anderson said. "Smelting is a rite of passage for people in Duluth, in northern Minnesota. You gotta do it."

Smelt are native to the Atlantic Ocean and got into the Great Lakes by accident in about 1912. They became established in Lake Superior by the 1940s and, with lake trout numbers decimated by sea lamprey at that time and no other major predator, the smelt population exploded.

By the 1970s, the annual North Shore smelt run had become legendary across Minnesota, drawing thousands of smelters with their buckets, bags, bonfires and beer. The nightly soirees along the lake were epic combinations of netting and partying.

But, as with most invasive species, smelt numbers eventually peaked and then dropped. Meanwhile, native lake trout have rebounded to much higher numbers, and, combined with stocked salmon, have been eating more smelt than ever.

That's made the annual spring spawning run more of a jog or walk in most years. But, as the water temperatures in the rivers and near shore of Lake Superior slowly reach the upper 40s, the smelt still come to spawn each spring.

"It's not like it used to be, but it's still fun," said Wayne Bentler, of Two Harbors, as he sat in a folding lawn chair on shore.

Bentler, 72, came with his brother, Dave, 68, of Park Rapids, Minnesota, for the annual trip aimed at getting enough smelt for a few good fish fries.

"We’re not staying out all night, that's for sure," Dave noted.

Some people do, though, and the run often gets better in the early morning hours. Along Minnesota Point on Tuesday night, there were reports of massive hauls using seines, long nets walked out into the lake and looped around to capture the smelt, then brought back to shore. Sometimes a single seine trek into the lake would net a five-gallon bucket full of smelt.

Once you have a few dozen smelt — generally six per person is enough — it isn't hard to make a meal. Just cut off the head, use scissors to cut open the belly and remove the entrails. Coat them with your favorite fish batter, fire up the oil and cook them — bones, skin and all.

Fries and coleslaw are optional.

"You just eat them with the skin on, fry them up and there you go," Wayne Bentler said.

This is not sport, per se, as the fish has no fighting chance to escape. But it's still a decades-old tradition for some people, a chance to be outdoors in spring and harvesting some piscatorial protein.

Tuesday night was partly cloudy, nearly calm, with the only waves coming from passing ore boats and temperatures in the upper 40s along the lake. Not bad considering all the days of big winds and cold recently.

"It's a beautiful night. It's just fun to be outside and on the water. And you get a good meal out of it," said Billy Pilacinski of Duluth. "Anytime I can be on the water, it's great for me."

While spring smelt fries used to be common at volunteer fire department halls, VFW clubs and church basements across Minnesota, it's now getting harder to track down a meal of the little buggers.

Still, several Duluth restaurants offer smelt fries for a week or two each spring when they can find fish to buy. Call ahead to see which ones will have smelt this year.

Looking to acquire some smelt for your own kitchen? The Facebook page " Mn Smelting Reports" has several people selling 5-gallon buckets full of smelt for $50-$100 each.

A bit of smelting controversy arose this year as some people have questioned the legality of so-called umbrella nets used to catch smelt.

State law allows dip nets for smelt in rivers and from piers and allows seine nets for use in Lake Superior (but not within 100 feet of a river). Cast nets, which are thrown out, are illegal.

State law doesn't mention umbrella nets. But because they are used by dipping them into the water to scoop out the fish (some are even attached to a handle), conservation officers have been given a directive from the St. Louis County Attorney's office to treat umbrella nets as legal dip nets.

And since there is no legal limit for how many smelt any person can take, and because smelt are considered an invasive species in Lake Superior, there's been no clarion cry to crack down on how — or how many — smelt are taken from the big lake.

Both Wisconsin and Minnesota have posted fish consumption advisories for smelt, warning people to limit their meals of smelt to just one per month due to surprisingly high levels of PFAS, the "forever chemicals" used in firefighting foam and many household products.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources added the warning after analyzing smelt collected in 2019 near the Apostle Islands and Port Wing and finding high levels of the chemicals.

The advisory to limit meals of smelt to one per month was the first PFAS-specific warning for Lake Superior, and for the Great Lakes, and has now been adopted by the Minnesota Department of Health as well.

PFAS is known to cause cancer and other health issues and is showing up everywhere, including in fish and animals in the wild. It was not found in high levels in other Lake Superior fish species analyzed at the same time as smelt, but fish consumption advisories are in effect across both states for many species for other contaminants such as mercury and PCBs.

You can find out more about which fish are safe to eat at health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/fish/index.html .

Smelt are sensitive to light and "run" only at night, so the best netting starts after sunset. In addition to the Lester River mouth, Minnesota Point beach and the Duluth Ship Canal, other smelting spots include the Knife, Stewart, Gooseberry, Split Rock, Beaver, Baptism, Cross, Temperance, Poplar and Cascade rivers.

The North Shore runs usually start later in the season than the Twin Ports run.

The smelt run should last another week or so, moving up the North Shore in coming nights. If you want to start smelting all you need is a pair of waders, a long-handled (6-10 feet) dip net, a big bucket to dump your catch in and a valid fishing license for the state you are in. A headlamp and folding chair are good additions. Dress warm as the cold stream and lake water sucks the warmth out of you fast even on mild nights.

Some people push a seine net for smelt along the shoreline, especially the sand beaches along Minnesota and Wisconsin Point. This method can be very successful but requires more work.

There is no limit on how many smelt you can take home. Don't start any campfires. Don't leave any litter. Don't trespass on private property. Smelt must be transported dead and dry, not swimming in water, to avoid spreading fish diseases and invasive species. Clean them quickly and freeze or refrigerate as they will spoil fast.