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Almost Forgotten Smelt
Almost Forgotten Smelt

Video: Almost Forgotten Smelt

Video: Almost Forgotten Smelt
Video: Erick Arc Elliott - Almost Forgotten (Prod. by Flash Frequency Music) 2024, March
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Fishing Academy

Over the years, now I don’t remember the name of the educational television program, where the question was asked: “What is the smallest fish in our reservoirs?” The answers were not very diverse: they mainly named three fish, smelt, bleak, less often vendace. And no one remembered the smelt. Namely, it was then discussed.

Smelt is a dwarf smelt form, light with a silvery shade, the smallest fish in Russian waters. The usual length is 5-7, the largest, which is rare - 10-12 centimeters. Weight from 3 to 10 grams. Lives three to four years. Despite its obviously not impressive size, smelt is the only small fish of commercial importance. LP Sabaneev even stated: "… In such lakes as Chudskoe and Pskovskoe, smelt are the main mass of all fish."

In relatively recent times, many tons of smelt were caught by special fishing artels. Dried and frozen smelt was sold to many cities in Russia. A bad catch of smelt, like a poor harvest of bread, was a real disaster. It is not for nothing that the great Russian poet N. A. Nekrasov wrote: "The bread was not ugly, the smelts were not caught."

The abundance of smelt varies greatly, sometimes it is practically not found in catches. I found interesting statistics: for example, in the Pskov-Peipsi Lake, the catch of smelt in 1935 amounted to 86 thousand centners, and in 1935 - 7 thousand centners, that is, in three years (the life cycle of one generation of this fish), it decreased by more than 12 times. Such a catastrophic change in numbers is characteristic of many fish with a short life cycle.

Smelt ripens at the end of the first year of life; an individual hatched from eggs last year spawns in the spring of next year. Spawning occurs in April - May, mainly in the coastal zone of lakes, but it also happens in rivers. More often eggs are deposited on a sandy or rocky bottom, sometimes at a depth of only a few centimeters.

The smelt feeds on zooplankton, but some fish culture experts claim that the smelt also eat eggs and fry. In turn, smelt becomes a frequent prey for many freshwater predators: salmon, pike perch, burbot, asp, pike, perch, whitefish, grayling and others. Such hunters always pursue flocks of smelt. Therefore, this fish is an excellent bait for catching them.

For this purpose, I mainly catch smelt. I use a regular float rod. In order for the fishing to be successful and not too tiring, I offer several, I think, useful practical tips. First of all, the tackle should be sensitive, and most importantly - very light. Sensitivity is associated with the small size of the fish, as bites are often subtle. Easy, because the number of casts significantly exceeds their number when catching even average fish. Simply put: when fishing for smelt, you have to wave the rod much more often. Swinging with heavy tackle quickly gets tired, especially in hot weather.

But the extremely lightweight tackle can be easily held in hand without any risk of breaking the rod, since a tiny smelt cannot create an extreme load for it. Fishing line 0.08-0.1 mm, (I think that the best option is a fishing line with a diameter of 0.1 mm, since sometimes fish are larger than smelt), hook No. 3-3.5, preferably with a long forearm (in childhood we such hooks were called "gullets").

Most anglers when fishing for smelt use a light and easy-to-cast float "goose". An essential element of a fishing rod is a sinker. Since often the smelt has to be caught near the surface of the water, the heavy lead will quickly sink to the bottom, thereby reducing the time for a possible bite of fish. In addition, a heavy lead with empty bites is often confused with the fishing line, forming almost a "beard". To avoid such troubles, it is best to use a 1.5-2 g lead.

Smelt is not a picky fish, so a variety of baits are put on the hook: insects and their larvae, as well as caddis flies, maggots, bloodworms, burdock moths, and parts of worms. In a word, everything that is at the moment “at hand”. Fishing efficiency can be greatly increased if bait is applied. It has its own specifics …

Since the smelt has to be caught mainly near the surface, the bait should sink as slowly as possible, that is, it should be suspended as long as possible. The conclusion is clear: the lighter the bait, the more likely it is to attract fish.

Especially if the lump of groundbait quickly disintegrates in contact with water, forming as many balls of turbidity as possible. The more turbidity, the more smelt will be attracted.

Experienced smelt hunters assure that the simplest groundbait can be made from just three components: sugar, bran, bread crumbs. Someone also adds anise oil to this fragrance mixture. It is only necessary to take into account that, on the one hand, the finer the grinding, the more turbidity, on the other hand, a denser lump is obtained from small components, which may not immediately crumble when hitting water.

In recent years, the number of smelt in our water bodies has been steadily decreasing. In addition to natural sharp annual fluctuations, the number of fish is decreasing due to excessive commercial catches. In such a situation, it is time to recall L. P. Sabaneev, expressed by him in 1875: “It is more than likely that over time the commercial value of smelt will increase significantly, since there is no doubt that it reproduces more successfully where large fish are almost caught. One could even say that breeding smelt in the heavily fished lakes of Central Russia would be highly desirable. True, it should be admitted that at present no one is dealing with this problem.

In the old days, the menu of Russian cuisine included not only traditional cabbage soup and soup with smelts, but also other dishes. Nowadays, there are no trace of many dishes, but some of them still remain. Here's an example:

Fried smelt. Clean the slickas from scales, gut (without cutting off the head) and rinse. To prevent the fish from falling apart during frying, the back must be cut. Moisten salted smelt with an egg, beaten with a little salt and milk, roll in breadcrumbs or flour and fry on both sides in hot oil until they are lightly browned. Serve with fried boiled potatoes, Serve horseradish sauce or tomato sauce separately.

1 kilogram of smelt, 1 egg, 1 glass of crackers, 2 tbsp. tablespoons of butter or 0.5 cups of vegetable oil, milk, salt.

Alexander Nosov

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