Friday Night Fishing: The Search for Smelt

Whew! The weather has finally warmed up in Wisconsin, and Luke and I have gotten outdoors as much as possible in order to take full advantage of it. I'm behind on my blogging; I have so many adventures to tell about! I'll start with a couple weeks ago, when Luke and I did the first night fishing we've done in a long time.

Luke and I have many relatives that grew up in Wisconsin, and we've heard from many different "old-timers" about the legendary smelt runs. According to the tales, you could just head out on May 1st (yes- that date specifically) and throw a dip net in the water. Within a few minutes, you would pull it in and be up to your elbows in the small, wriggling fish.

Photo courtesy of Minnesota Sea Grant

 

For those of you unfamiliar with this fish, you can read more about them here. If you're from Wisconsin or the U.P., you've no doubt gone to at least one smelt fry in your life. Well, those are what we were hoping to catch.

 

We weren't able to make it on May 1st, but instead went out on Friday, April 26th (this was the closest to that day that we had free). We drove on up to County Park 2 in Oconto County, tossed out the net, and hoped for the best.

 

Luke getting ready to toss it in.

 

 

And we caught...

 

 

A shiner! Not a smelt.

 

We actually didn't end up netting any smelt. We caught plenty of shiners and perch, though, and had a nice time with that. It appears that, at least for us, those stories will continue to remain legends. Who knows, though, maybe the smelt will make a comeback just like perch have in the past 5-10 years.

 

We ended up switching to fishing poles, since we thought we might catch a larger fish that way. We decided to fish for smelt again later when it was darker.

 



 

We loved the excuse to use our lantern. 

Grace was nice and snug in her stroller. She enjoyed watching the action, though she wasn't quite ready to hold a pole on her own.

 

Luke showing Grace the first catch of the year- a tiny perch (yes- we threw it back).

After it got too dark to see our poles, we went for a hike along the rocks leading to the bay. Grace was snug in her carrier, and she promptly fell asleep.

 

Although, in this picture she was still wide awake. :)

 

 

On our walk we found a few friends. We saw a muskrat paddling around, and I was able to snap a few shots of this photogenic leopard frog. You can tell this is a leopard frog (and not a pickerel frog) by the fact that the blotches do not form parallel rows; they are more randomly scattered on the back. 

 

 

 

We went back and tried the nets again, but the smelt outsmarted us (or maybe were just sticking to their calendars). We'll have to give it another go on May 1st, 2014.

 

We finally left around 9:45 when a thunderstorm rolled in across the bay.  It was amazing to watch the lightning slowly get closer to us over the course of a half hour. It just felt great to be outside!

 

 

"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:" ~Matthew 13:47

 



 

Praising God for shiners, smelt, perch, muskrats, and leopard frogs,

 

Jen



Cute Baby Bugs

Hello,

Well, as I mentioned last time, Luke and I were going to go up to my parents' cabin, and we were able to go last weekend. We love going up there every chance we get; it's a relaxing, peaceful, and refreshing change of pace. Plus, Luke loves that he can set up a fishing pole with a bell, and listen for the bell to ring while helping with yard work or working on a different project.

While Luke was hanging out on the dock setting up his fishing pole, he called over to me, "Hey Jen, come check out this wiggler!"

I responded, "What's a wiggler?"

Luke (vaguely): "A baby bug."

Take a moment and picture in your head a baby bug. Does it have cute, big eyes looking up at you? Is it round, with a cartoon smile on its face? Good. Then you know what I was expecting to see. I guess I thought I'd be looking at this:

A cute little wiggler.

Or maybe this:

An even cuter bug. Sure, I'd consider calling this a wiggler. I

imagine saying, "Hey there, little bug! Wiggle on over to this flower!"

Now, with those things in mind. Here is what Luke actually wanted to show me:

Hi. I'm a mayfly nymph. I am neither cute, nor cuddly.

However, I will wiggle over to you in a sinister fashion.

If you've ever bought live bait at a store that sells a variety of bugs, you've no doubt seen these. I had heard of wigglers before (I think Luke has mentioned fishing with them a few times, but we've never used them). I've seen the little Styrofoam containers marked "wigglers," but I've never opened them up. Now, I'm glad I hadn't.

The good news is, wigglers are primarily used during ice fishing season. Since spring is officially here (even if we'll have weather in the 40's this week), I can put these little wigglers out of my mind for several months. I've been told that they don't bite. They're just homely to look at.

Also, in case you're curious, here's a photo of what mayfly nymphs become when they grow up:

Photo from ucmp.berkeley.edu

One last fun fact about mayflies- their other nickname? Green Bay Flies. Wow- Green Bay isn't just known for the Packers after all!

"O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom has thou made them all:

the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea,

wherein are creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts."

 ~Psalm 104:24-25

Praising God for harmless, innumerable, small beasts,

Jen