#smelt

Smelt (Magic 2013) - Zoltan Boros

Shishamo Smelt Spirinchus lanceolatus

A smelt from Hokkaido, Japan. The fish is said to resemble a willow leaf, and its Japanese name, 柳葉魚, reflects this; shishamo, is derived from the Ainu name for the same fish, susam. In Japanese cuisine, this fish is grilled or fried whole and served with its roe intact. Due to declining catches in recent years, attempts have been made to commercially farm the fish in Japan.

Smelt lives in a pond. It's a cheerful pond. With greenish water. Sand. And algae. Usually, everything is green here. And the smelt knows this place well. There's a pond here. And it's big. Really big. And there are places where you can swim somewhere else. A whole corridor from which you can get to all sorts of places. A river. A lake.

View of women smelt fishing at Escanaba, Michigan. Printed on front: "Smelt fishing, Escanaba, Mich." Printed on back: "The annual Smelt Fishing Jamboree takes place the first week-end in April which marks the start the start of a two week spawning run, when millions of the silver bellied fish start running from Lake Michigan up the various streams in the district. Made in U.S.A. by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Photo by Selkirk Studio."

Joseph “Joe” Thibodeau’s confectionary store. We aren’t sure who is in the picture with him but it could be my great-grandma Ida and one of his brothers.

Joseph “Joe” Thibodeau’s confectionary store, 1910 in Ashland, Wisconsin. His little brother, William and little sister, Gertie are behind the counter.

When his daughter Lorraine (my granny) and her sister Therese were growing up in the apartment above the shop, great-grandpa changed his business from a candy store to an ice cream parlor.

But on Friday nights? They operated a massive fish fry. Until 1966 the Catholic Church required its congregation to abstain from meat on all Fridays, not just during Lent. And great-grandpa’s neighbors, like himself, were French-Canadian Roman Catholics. Joseph was born in 1883 in St. Maurice, Quebec. The family immigrated when he was two.

Wisconsin to this day is known for their fish fries—nowadays especially during Lent. Easy access to fish and a large population of Roman Catholic immigrants including Germans, Poles, and Québécois started it and the yummy food kept it going.

The time period my granny recounted to me was during the Great Depression and great-grandpa Joe was trying to figure out ways to make an extra buck.

Ashland is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon Bay—fish was plentiful and affordable. “A typical Wisconsin fish fry consists of beer batter fried cod, perch, bluegill, walleye, smelt*, or in areas along the Mississippi River, catfish. The meal usually comes with tartar sauce, French fries or German-style potato pancakes, coleslaw, and rye bread. The number of lakes in the state means that eating fish became a popular alternative.” Source

* Smelt are sometimes called "salvation fish" or "cucumber fish" because they are the first fish to return to streams in the spring after winter (smelt runs), and they smell like cucumber.

Some smelt species are common in the North American Great Lakes. Some species of smelts are among the few fish that sportsmen have been allowed to net, using hand-held dip nets, either along the coastline or in streams. Some sportsmen also ice fish for smelt. They are often fried and eaten whole (bones and all as Gran and mom always gleefully told us when recounting smelt dipping and the massive fish fry that ensued in the Marlow household of 14 hungry souls).

Wikipedia tells it pretty much the same as Gran and Mom:

In the Canadian provinces and U.S. states around the Great Lakes, "smelt dipping" is a common group sport in the early spring and when stream waters reach around 4 °C (39 °F). Fish are spotted using a flashlight or headlamp and scooped out of the water using a dip net made of nylon or metal mesh. The smelt are cleaned by removing the head and the entrails. Fins, scales, and bones of all but the largest of smelts are cooked without removal.

Creative Commons Source

Gran and mom said the family pretty much formed an assembly line catching, gutting and cooking the little fishies that they had netted in Lake Michigan and the tributary streams (Grandpa met Granny when he was working on the boats on the Lakes, but eventually they moved south to Mishicot near his family’s farm in Stiles).

Of course, mom’s family didn’t do it for sport but from need. Feeding a family of 14 on a school janitor’s salary was no joke!

Mom out at the lake

Grandpa John Marlow getting his feet wet after mass, I’m guessing!

Gramps and Granny at the lake.

Great Grandpa John again with my Uncle John and Aunts Vicki and Mary.