Headed South for the Smelt dip on Saturday morning not really knowing what to expect as I had never experienced one. After a coaching and some general info from a great friend, and a borrowed net from another, I set out for Castle Rock with a little brother in tow to see what it was all about. We arrived about quarter to 6:00 AM and stepped onto the riverbank and looking down at the water was a wriggling black stripe about 3 feet wide as far up and down the muddy river as I could see. I swooped the net one time and and it came up with far more fish than it could hold. Boy you should have seen the look on Brothers face when I told him he was gonna have to bonk each one and record it on his catch card haha so after letting half of em go we filled the bucket to 20 lbs, put em on ice and headed up to the upper river to see if we could luck into something bigger. It started raining bout 11:00 so called it a day and went home. Now I just have to find some room in the freezer for all the Smelt. The best part of this experience was seeing so many parents with their children on the river having so much fun laughing and catching fish. I really hope to see this fishery continue.

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