This is Lake Champlain in Rouses Point, a far northern part of the lake. The lake sometimes freezes over where the ferry that runs from Plattsburgh is, but it almost always freezes over at it's narrow spots, like this one. That's Vermont on the other size. The mountains are hidden by clouds. To the right, out of the picture are 2 snowmobiles and a fishing shanty on the ice. Later this month there will be more shanties and probably a truck or two.
At the southern part of the lake, in Port Henry there's a Shanty Town where there are usually 1500 shanties. FIFTEEN HUNDRED shanties. It's really something to see. Trucks a-plenty parked next to each shanty. The people are mostly fishing for smelt, as opposed to the perch they fish for farther north. Smelt are small fish, the largest about 6". I can't imaging fishing for smelt with a hook, it's so much work to catch very many.
The times I've been smelt fishing we used nets and caught at least 50 at a time. Jamie and I went to a relative's place in the Finger Lakes, where they have a stream where the smelt spawn. The stream is alive with fish in April when the smelt are running--it's an amazing thing to see.
When we went one year, many years ago I had a big, beautiful black dog who was a big fishing dog and she was in hog heaven. She'd stand in the midle of the stream and grab one fish after another, for hours on end. She didn't eat them all, but she feasted on quite a few. It was nice to see her enjoy herself so much, since she could never catch a single fish anywhere else.
That weekend we caught about 2000 smelt and stayed up nearly all night cleaning them and freezing them in packets. We fried plenty and ate them. They really do taste good. That was one of my favorite ever fishing experiences.
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