Fall fishing outing

Close-up of smelt for sale at a seafood market

—Photio by ChildofMidnight

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

September and October remind me of smelt fishing with  a bamboo pole and two hooks on a spreader on a dock in the harbor down the  wooded hill from our house. The sky always seemed to be clear, and the cool wind from the east included a whiff of the marsh along the channel  to the harbor. 

It was an exhilarating early fall ritual  coming as the maples started to turn bright colors and the apples were at their peak.  

Smelt are delicious fried with a little corn meal,  lemon and butter. 

Hit this link for a few pointers.

A fall fishing tradition

From Robert Whitcomb "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com:

This time of year reminds me of fishing for smelt, which would run from fall into winter. I grew up in a house up a hill from a harbor on Massachusetts Bay. When it started to get cool in late September and early October, we’d take bamboo rods with several hooks attached to something that looked a little like a coat hanger down to a dock and try to catch as many of these small fish to take home and fry in butter. They were delicious. We’d do this several times a week until November, when it was usually too cold and windy to enjoy such fishing.

It was a quiet seasonal joy.