Feb 262014
 

IMG952014021595151450 (2)

This year was our eighth year of doing Smeltapolooza, and we managed once again to do it on Valentine’s Day weekend.  We were remarking this year that this scheduling tradition is possibly one of the few great decisions the Monsters of Fishing have ever made.  It eliminates the necessity of taking the significant others out to fancy expensive dinners somewhere and buying all sorts of expensive flowers and gifts for Valentine’s Day.  It’s a way for us guys to get away and really just say to our significant others “honey, we don’t need an overly commercialized phony holiday to show each other how we feel”.  “I care about you so much we don’t need to celebrate on one chosen day, I love you everyday”.  “See you when I get back Sunday”.

IMAG0336IMG952014021595150744Despite the fact that we haven’t caught a smelt the
last few years, and only a small handful ever, we dutifully baited all the
hooks, lowered all the lines down into the water, and at that point proceeded
to declare that the fishing had officially ended for the trip.  It was actually a good turnout at the smelt
camps that night with many of them occupied and folks milling about visiting
from shack to shack and standing around socializing on the ice. No one was
catching a thing and it all confirmed what we have been suspecting now for a
little while;  that smelts actually
became extinct a few years ago and nobody said anything.

Cheers!   MOF

Cheers!
MOF

That of course will not dampen our efforts in the
least though, oh no. We will be back next year and perhaps we won’t  bother to put the lines in the water from now
on I don’t know,  but tradition is
tradition and Smeltapolooza will carry on…

Feb 012013
 

Our annual tradition of Smeltapolooza almost didn’t go off this year.  Unusually warm weather in January was keeping the ice from getting a hold on the rivers and lakes, and the MOF member’s schedules were all askew for February this year.  Fortunately, with 48 hrs to spare before our only weekend window, the word from the Smelt camps was “we have  ice”.  The MOF’s Smeltapolooza outing was on.

Smeltapolooza 2013 009

This year we had additional company with Monster Troy’s brother Todd and his friend Emily joining us. Todd had been on this adventure once before but Emily? well, we were certain she had no idea what she was about to be exposed to. Smeltapolooza 2013 008

 

 Smeltapolooza 2013 014As usual, we didn’t catch any smelt and so remain quite consistant year over year. This year’s menu planning fell through the cracks and so ultimately everyone just brought stuff that didn’t need much prep or cooking on location.  Bonus points to Troy for scoring us a big load of McRib sandwiches that we wrapped in foil and re-heated on the wood stove.  Other items on the menu included a monster fiery chili by Todd,  a bucket of fried chicken, cold cuts and lobster meat for sandwiches,  slim jims, assorted nuts and potato chips, cheesy doodles, and a can of SPAM that somehow ended up falling unopened into the whole chili. 

Smeltapolooza 2013 020

 

 

Smeltapolooza 2013 019Todd’s friend Emily was a trooper and, aside from almost throwing up at the sight of the blood worms we use for bait and from being in a very confined space with five smelly guys, she managed to go toe-toe out there. She was a little annoyed that despite years of doing this, her guides were not producing a single smelt.  She really wanted to see one, and had been made aware of the tradition that the first smelt caught must have its head bit off by the catcher. Well, someone from another shack down the way found out and brought up one of the only two smelts they had produced so she could see one.  Don’t let the picture fool you, the head was off and it was already cleaned when given to Emily.

Oh, and with regards to the title of this post and the part about “Where’s My Phone?!”  Well, as we were all sitting around the shack, there was suddenly a significant splash in one of the race holes that startled us all. For a second there was speculation that a big fish might have tried to jump up out of the hole and into the camp. Then conspiracy theories and accusations started flying that one of us has secretly tossed something in the water to get the rest all excited.  Finally, someone uttered the words “cell phone?”

Smeltapolooza 2013 011There was only one person sitting immediately beside the area of the race hole from where the splash had emanated. Troy, in his pimpin Santa hat, shoved his hand back into the right pocket of his fleece jacket and then hung his head low. We all knew. Not a word needed to be said. It was a good 15-20 minutes before we all caught our breath from laughing so hard. And we had immediately started calling Troy’s phone and leaving voicemails for him to report the underwater conditions down there, and was he seeing any smelts down there…………   So for the remainder of Smeltapolooza 2013, from time to time someone would call out “Where’s My Phone?!”  and we’d howl all over again.

 

There has been talk about retiring Smeltapolooza after these years. Been about eight or nine of them.  Talk about going south for a few days fishing in February instead. Somewhere warm, with words like tarpon and bone-fish being tossed around. Could just be the winter doldrums causing a little delirium but, hey, you never know.  Stay tuned……

Smeltapolooza 2013 002a

Cheers,

MOF

 

 Posted by at 2:41 pm  Tagged with:
Feb 162012
 

There are no smelts in Maine.  It’s all a big fat lie.

Ok, Ok, that’s not true. Reports indicate that there has been some action this year with the best seemingly on the larger Kennebec River.  However the overwhelming response this year, so far as I’ve seen from those fishing the smaller tributaries where the bulk of the smelt camp operations are, is that… this year is bad. In fact, over the course of the last 7 or 8 years we’ve been doing Smeltapolooza, it seems the catch rate has steadily dwindled.

..."not a creature was stirring, not even a smelt"...

Some claim that, at least this year, the warmer winter and late ice is the cause, while others say that the tides have been running too big or that freezing then thawing ice is creating weird currents that are clouding up the water. None of this though would explain why some I talk to say that the smelt fishing just isn’t what it was a few years ago.  Perhaps it some cyclical thing that happens every number of years and coincides with the New England Patriots draft picks or something. Or, maybe it’s best to leave it to the biologists to figure it out and we’ll scour the internets for any news from them.

In the mean time, we carried on the tradition again this year and tackled the Abagadasset River in Bowdoinham, Maine.   MOF members equaled four, smelt caught equaled zero. And the dozen or so camps along the river bank with us were coming up empty handed as well on the five hour, night time, outgoing tide.  We did eat well, except that the lack of a menu coordinator meant that somehow each of us brought sausages….lots of sausage,…sausage 6 ways sausage. We will review menu planning procedures for future trips.  

 Dean brought his bear repellant pink flamingo (see First Big Spring Trip Roundup) to guard the shack and, although black bears are hibernating in Maine in the winter, Dean’s from down south originally and probably thinks where there is frozen water there has to be polar bears wandering around. 

I’m seeing and hearing of guys using Sabiki rigs that they bring themselves and jig with instead of relying on the single lines provided with the camps. Next year we’ll rig up a few of these with little glow in the dark krill-like jigs and work them with handheld jigging rods… you can see an early attempt we did with a single rig from the post in Monster Tech Tips called the Smeltslayer Model 2010 prototype..  

 

Between now and then though, the MOF will be preparing for First Flys Out in early spring…. and anything else that comes up before then…

Feb 212011
 

The Monsters Of Fishing got out later than usual this year for what we figured was our 7th annual pilgrimage to extract small little fish through frozen river ice in the hopes of filling buckets with them.  We settled into a six and a half hour outgoing tide with fierce wind gusts buffeting the 20 odd shacks along the Catance River.  Not a line stirred. In fact, with every shack booked, we saw no one produce a smelt. There was a single 14 inch carp caught by a group a few doors down, but that was it. This is smelting. And we know it going in. If they are running, you can haul lines all night. When they are not, then it’s time to relax, break out the food, and start cooking.

This year’s menu started with a melted Velveeta with jarred salsa dumped in for chip dipping. Shrimp scampi followed, then, Italian sausages and rib eye steaks. Vegetables as usual were strictly forbidden. We agreed that onions and green peppers sautéed with meat are considered aromatics instead of vegetables here, and so are allowed.  The feast was paired with a lager that rang in at $2.99 a six pack and worked well with the delicate flavors.  One member enjoyed gin and tonics with the entrees. Beef jerky and Slim Jims rounded out the service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year I had a re-match with my cooler. We had a scuffle last year going up the steep ramp off the river at the end of the night and, review of a previous Smeltapolooza post will indicate that it kicked my butt. This year I trained hard in anticipation of the grudge match and it paid off. I dominated the cooler the whole way up the ramp without incident.  In fact, aside from Dean loosing his sunglasses down the race hole in the first three minutes, and someone who will remain nameless exploring the culinary possibilities of eating a live bloodworm and making Troy nearly loose lunch at the sight of that, the whole trip seemed to go pretty smoothly for the most part.

We did some rough number crunching to determine the price per pound we’ve paid for fresh smelts on average for the past seven trips and we figured it comes out to approximately $437 a pound. Now, smelts are $2.99 a pound at the local supermarkets all day long this time of year, we realize that. But, paying a slight premium to ensure absolute freshness in this case seems to make sense to all of us so, the tradition will continue. Next year we will move to another location and have set a goal to double this year’s catch… which will only take one fish but, it can only go up from there….  Cheers from the MOF.

Jan 032011
 

It’s time. The Monsters had a good open water season. There were the two fly fishing expeditions to ply Rapid , Cusuptic, and Magalloway Rivers in the Rangely area, and Monster Dean’s work on Sebago Lake,…all of which provided productive fishing this spring and summer. Heavy work schedules kept postings to this site a bit on the sparse side but rest assured….  The Monsters Of Fishing were vigilant in keeping lines in the water. 

But now the chill is in the air, and even though Maine has extended open water season to year round on most bodies of water,..  the river edges are crisping up with ice that’s moving outward and the annual tradition of Smeltapolooza has hit first gear. Normally the overnight event is planned for Valentines Day weekend… a logistical stroke of genius from years ago that has been staunchly defended despite subsequent marriages and significant others. This year however, business travel constraints of one of us has meant the date has been set for January 29th.   Ground Zero is again  Jim’s Smelts Camps on the Catance River.  We may find additional people to join in this year, and the food and beverage selections are currently in the final stages of planning. Dean has a batch of something brewing for The Monsters Of Fishing Brewing Company’s suds offering this year–maybe a smelt-jalapeno-corn liquor infused IPA or something…gawd knows.  All I know is Jimmy and I talked food menus at Conference “G” last night and there will be plenty of smoke rolling out of the smelt shack from various meat based products again this year ( vegetables, are as usual, strictly forbidden again this year).  

This year we’ll be fishing a  4:00pm to 10pm tide–a later tide and a longer stretch of darkness with the lights over the race hole shining to attract the smelts so,..  I’m anticipating perhaps a greater catch than ever this year…  and even stranger looks from the hotel desk back where we’re staying when a half dozen of us come through the lobby at 11pm a little rough around the edges from all the fishing, and dragging coolers, packs, and propane stoves up to our rooms…  eh, they remember us by now.

Feb 142010
 

This last weekend the crew headed out on the annual mission we call Smeltapolooza. The little buggers were elusive this year and the final weigh in of our catch rang up at 0.0. We were not alone though. It seems that no one else was having much luck either. Perhaps it was the unusually mild temperatures, or unfavorable barometric pressure, maybe the little guys had a big breakfast before we got there, who knows. But that’s Smelting and you know it going in. 

Jim's Smelt Camps

Seconds before the"pot holder"sticks on the woodstove top burst into flames

Shrimp ala Propane

Having said that, we still consider the trip a great success. We did after all eat “well”. Troy’s new hot cheese dip, then garlic shrimp, deer/moose burgers, marinated sirloin tips…a four pound block of aged cheddar, all served with traditional side dishes: Chips, beef jerky, and a particularly fine bag of cheezy poof balls.

Jimmy making the rounds with 4lbs of cheddar

Bambi & Bullwinkle

Monsters Of Fishing Brewing Company’s Smeltapolooza 2010 Amber Ale was served by creator Dean. Thanks to The Hop Shop for keeping Dean on the straight and narrow with his brewing. It came out damn good.

 

 

The Amber Ale

Jimmy still wants pizza delivered

nuff said

 

Really the only unfortunate incident of the whole trip came as we were packed up and heading off the ice to catch our ride. Seems I got into a bit of a scuffle with my rolling cooler as I was pulling it up the (steep, slippery) incline of the gangway that leads up off the river to the bank above. I don’t know who started it and witnesses opinions vary. I contend that it wasn’t me and my cooler was being belligerent going up the ramp. All I know is words were exchanged and next thing I know me and the cooler were locked in a death match. Last thing  I remember is looking up the ramp at Troy at the top and he was just shaking his head slowly back and forth as if thinking to himself  “ok, this is going to be ugly”.

Well me and the cooler tangled and cart wheeled backwards down the ramp and wound up in a heap on the river ice. I’m pretty sure I had the upper hand on it for awhile, after all I weigh in at 178 lbs and the cooler at 10lbs at that point and, I clearly had the reach advantage. But, ultimately the cooler rallied and wound up pinning me at the bottom for the win. Fortunately it didn’t do any damage to me, and I managed to bust off his latch in the process. We made up after that though, and I even promised to pay for the repairs to his latch.

 

Feb 142010
 

We had the launch sequence initiated.  This was probably the last time a “camera” was used correctly. MOF members from left to right: Boyd (the instigator), Jimmy(the actual sane one), The Darkone, Troy(our all time hero). We actually met this time in the morning with the intention of being early to the smelt shacks. This was to cut down on the amount of “pre launch consumption” that might have taken place…

 

We traveled here, and yon…..over the mighty Turnpike……to where we arrived at our destination…(hotel arrival shots not included…they weren’t impressed that we walked through the lobby with a propane gas powered stove)…but we arrived at our destination….and the managing board of directors announced…that we had indeed arrived and the fishing could begin…….Notice the “right hand”….festivities began….It only got worse folks….

 

 

We started with a “pre-shift” meeting….we had to make sure we had the taxi cab number preloaded and all “adult beverages” were accounted for. This is a logistics thing that must be taken into consideration with the utmost care.

This was followed by the rules committee meeting to determin “how many” one can hold while smelt fishing…It seems the rules committee stated that more than one was acceptable (board member Jimmy approved)…But……

 

 

 

 

 

We Had to pay homage to the fish gods….and our other board member …..to be sure that the Smelts would bite….

(folks…it only got worse from here)……

Feb 062010
 

Smeltaplooza is a week away, and preparations are in full swing. All systems are GO,… shacks, hotel rooms, transportation logistics are all secured. Details of provisions, both solid and liquid, will gel in the next few days. In the mean time, I’ve tinkered with ideas for a new weapon to increase the odds of actually catching any significant number of the little smelt beasties, and have come up with the Smeltslayer 2010. This is the prototype that we’ll test next weekend. Developed after minutes of research and reflection on past experience, I am very optimistic.  The technical details of the rig’s construction are complex, but  I’ll summarize in brief:  Use 4 really small jigs with glow-in-the-dark eyes and some legs or hairs on them (think tiny krill). Tie on jigs 14 inches apart and on 2 inch loops along six feet of clear line. Put a swivel on both ends. Put an ounce of lead on the bottom end and hook the top to your provided line. Bait with  little pieces of bloodworm and put in water. Jig around. Reference picture below.

Results of the Smeltslayer 2010 will be posted following field trials next weekend……

Jan 262010
 

Since there may be a big batch of smelts in our future with this years Smeltapolooza expedition drawing near, I dug out my fried smelt recipe so I can refresh my memory. And why not share because, isn’t that what this is all about?!  So, here it is. You can write it down or copy and paste it and put it somewhere safe like me so you dont have to remember all the steps….

                                      Ingredients:

                                 A bunch of smelts.

                                       Some flour.

                                           Butter.

 

Clean and toss smelts in flour. Melt butter in hot frying pan. Throw smelts in and fry. Serve with a frosty beverage of your choice- Possibly a Monsters Of Fishing Brewing Company, Smeltapolooza 2010 Amber Ale—Oops,  more to come on that from Dean….