Anyone ever actually eat the bait? - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

ctfphoto · 10-12-2011, 12:09 PM

BECAUSE of this THREAD (and some google research, and my mother in laws father's fishing for smelt to eat), I ate the bait for breakfast THIS morning.

I was out fishing yesterday and caught lots of macks and lots of smelt. There was so much bait fish in the water that the larger fish did not seem hungry.

This morning I went into my lobster bait in the freezer and pulled out 3 smelt that were about 14 hrs old.

When I butterfly filet the bait, I noticed very white meat

WOW, super good eats, should have gone for more

mtnbykr2 · 10-12-2011, 12:20 PM

and I thought smelt were good for nothing but cut bait...bravo....nuther
good idea, nice presentation

sasha · 10-12-2011, 12:36 PM

Fast way to make Smelt (which i love to eat). Clean and gut it deep fry it with some garlic. For the side fries and lots more garlic and a nice big tomato sliced with salt and peper.
Or you can bake them, brush olive oil and spices all over inside and out. put a thin sliced black olive on top of each.
I just made myself very hungry.

TheBentRod · 10-12-2011, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctfphoto

When I butterfly filet the bait, I noticed very white meat

WOW, super good eats, should have gone for more

Did you scale them? How easy are they to butterfly?

ctfphoto · 10-12-2011, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBentRod

Did you scale them? How easy are they to butterfly?

I left the scales on, and what happened is when I cleaned and beheaded them, I noticed a large backbone as the bait was quite large. I grabbed the backbone at the head end and pulled it and it came out nicely ending in a butterfly. Did the same for the other two and worked just as good. Leaves a few small bones you can eat or discard.

pchen911 · 10-12-2011, 01:11 PM

Smelt and Grunions are essentially the same.

I go through hundreds of them during grunion run season.

Easiest way to prepare is to scale, salt, dust in flour, and deep fry. Then just eat around the bones and gut.

No need to gut them or fillet them. Easy to prepare when you have a bucket of hundreds at a time.

People have been eating them this way forever. Not so popular now, but in the 70s and 80s it was a very popular thing to do. Goes great with beer.

10-12-2011, 12:20 PM	#2
mtnbykr2 Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: newbury park ca Posts: 2,323	and I thought smelt were good for nothing but cut bait...bravo....nuther good idea, nice presentation

10-12-2011, 12:36 PM	#3
sasha Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 275	Fast way to make Smelt (which i love to eat). Clean and gut it deep fry it with some garlic. For the side fries and lots more garlic and a nice big tomato sliced with salt and peper. Or you can bake them, brush olive oil and spices all over inside and out. put a thin sliced black olive on top of each. I just made myself very hungry.

10-12-2011, 01:11 PM	#6
pchen911 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 218	Smelt and Grunions are essentially the same. I go through hundreds of them during grunion run season. Easiest way to prepare is to scale, salt, dust in flour, and deep fry. Then just eat around the bones and gut. No need to gut them or fillet them. Easy to prepare when you have a bucket of hundreds at a time. People have been eating them this way forever. Not so popular now, but in the 70s and 80s it was a very popular thing to do. Goes great with beer.