Sunday, May 29, 2011

That's it for smelt

Deckboss confesses he previously was unaware, or maybe just forgot, that Alaska has a commercial fishery for smelt, also known as hooligan.

It's a small fishery, in Cook Inlet. Smelt fishermen are required to have state permits, and legal gear is a hand-held dipnet.

The season opened May 1 and closed at 5 p.m. today as the harvest reached the 100-ton annual limit, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced.

I know nothing about the marketing of these fish, or even how they taste. Can anyone enlighten us?
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2011 at 10:57 PM

    Deckboss- If they are the same smelt that we get on the Kuskokwim, they smell very much like cucumber when fresh. They are dried and smoked here. These smelt are low in oil.

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  2. AnonymousMay 30, 2011 at 10:58 AM

    Apparent several variant species smell like cucumber, like capelin, too. Probably the smell of the plankton they feed upon.

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  3. AnonymousMay 30, 2011 at 11:42 PM

    With a very sharp knife carefully filet the Smelt. Flip the tiny filets in flour and salt n pepper. Fry in butter! eat w/ boiled potatoes and veg-all. Lemon juice and tartar sauce too! Eat them up YUM! :)

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  4. AnonymousMay 31, 2011 at 10:20 AM

    I know in the late 90s there was a commercial outfit harvesting hooligan on the Coopper River out of Cordova. They were supplying places with hooligan for food for their marine mammal programs.

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