Smelt and other small fish

[flyinglentris]

[Mod.edit: This and following few posts have ben moved to form a new thread (MG)]

I was thinking fish and went back in my mind to the lake shore in Chicago, the rocks off Montrose Harbor on Lake Michigan. Many people fished there with nets, where normally net fishing is illegal, except for one certain fish.

We all know little fish as anchovies and sardines. But these folks were after smelt.

I have never had smelt. Apparently, you can not get it in stores, except maybe as herring, which I believe is a type of smelt. Correct me, if I am wrong.

Smelt can be eaten whole or pan fried.

Smelt is not just a great lakes fish. It has varieties in the colder ocean regions, North Atlantic, North Pacific and yes, South Pacific to for what I have heard, be favored in New Zealand.

Can any member share their experience with smelt?

Another small fish that might be worth a yarn, is grunion.

 

[JAS_OH1]

I was thinking fish and went back in my mind to the lake shore in Chicago, the rocks off Montrose Harbor on Lake Michigan. Many people fished there with nets, where normally net fishing is illegal, except for one certain fish.

We all know little fish as anchovies and sardines. But these folks were after smelt.

I have never had smelt. Apparently, you can not get it in stores, except maybe as herring, which I believe is a type of smelt. Correct me, if I am wrong.

Smelt can be eaten whole or pan fried.

Smelt is not just a great lakes fish. It has varieties in the colder ocean regions, North Atlantic, North Pacific and yes, South Pacific to for what I have heard, be favored in New Zealand.

Can any member share their experience with smelt?

Another small fish that might be worth a yarn, is grunion.

I know nothing about grunion, but my husband's family love smelt. I don't. I tried, but just not my thing. You can buy them in specialty stores here (I live 40 miles from Lake Erie). My husband will eat them but not his favorite, either. I ate them because it would have been impolite not to do so. I ate just a few and loaded up on side dishes instead. They kept trying to get me to eat more and I said I was full, lol. So I had to suffer through that about a dozen times over the last 22 years. The pandemic saved me from having to eat them over the last 2 years!

 

[JAS_OH1]

TastyReuben: smelt are like baitfish, the ones my husband's family get are just a couple inches long. They cut off the heads, lightly bread them, and fry them. They eat them bones and all. I have heard that some people even eat them heads on.

 

[Yorky]

TastyReuben: smelt are like baitfish, the ones my husband's family get are just a couple inches long. They cut off the heads, lightly bread them, and fry them. They eat them bones and all. I have heard that some people even eat them heads on.

Back in '71 we ate sardines (whole, barbecued) on a beach in Casablanca with a lump of unleavened bread. Whenever I eat sardines now (suitably prepared) I remember that.

 

[JAS_OH1]

Back in '71 we ate sardines (whole, barbecued) on a beach in Casablanca with a lump of unleavened bread. Whenever I eat sardines now (suitably prepared) I remember that.

You know, if hungry enough (or drunk enough), we sometimes eat things we ordinarily wouldn't. I was neither, lol. I ate the bare minimum to be sociable.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

This would be akin to a Florida person eating their bait instead of using it to catch decent fish
However, I have tried sardines and other small fish like this in Japanese bars and they were tasty (though the wife did not like the whole head-on presentation).

 

[Morning Glory]

Whitebait is a traditional UK dish - deep fried in batter. It dates back centuries. However given that they are immature fish of a number of species, there are questions about ecological viability since fishing for them can be detrimental to sustainable fish populations.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Can´t say I´ve ever knowingly eaten smelt; it looks to be the size of a very small sardine.
Yep - had some whitebait the last time I was home. No heads.
I also had two versions of tiny, fried fish in Barcelona - heads and all. They call the "xonxos" or "sonsos" in Catalunya, and we had one version with fried egg, the other simple floured and fried: