Where to find smelt/cisco- dead bait

[Alagnak]

Does anyone know where to find good, big, STINKY dead bait around the twin cities area or headed north? I've been looking everywhere this year and still haven't gotten stinky fingers.

Thanks

[TV BOY]

I've gotten frozen smelt from grocery stores in the past--just ask the butcher. As to getting them smelly, use your imagination

[LETSgoFISHIN]

how far north are you talking? i have a bunch from this year u can have but im in the duluth area? dont know if this helps or not

[ironman]

I purchased Ciscos at Vados before..I believe they normally carry smelt too but were out when I went. Frozen suckers were available as well. It up on hwy 65 I cant remeber the cross street.

[Roughfisher]

Vados has smelt frozen, not sure about ciscos. You can also easily catch ciscos yourself, it's a lot of fun, and they will be a lot better bait than old frozen ones.

[Alagnak]

I have caught them before and yes, they are much better bait! Unfortunatly I don't have time for that this weekend. I'm assuming you're talking about HWY 65 in the cities right? I'll have to find that place.

Thanks for the offer in the duluth area too! My buddies will be going through there while going north to Red but i'll be going up from cities.

When I use to live in Spooner i went up Smelting every spring on the big lake but didn't go this spring so thats why i have to buy. I don't mind paying big bucks from a fish store either but it's hard to find the BIG ONES. I'd rather sit all day with a big one out for one fish that mess with the snakes sometimes.

Thanks for the info so far guys.

[Steve Foss]

Alagnak:

Aside from catching them yourself, as mentioned here, it's almost impossible to find really large frozen ciscos in the bait stores. Biggest I've ever seen in those frozen packs is about 8 or 9 inches. I caught one just under a pound this weekend on an Angel Eye Jr. while fishing for walleyes, and it's in the freezer waiting for the right situation.

Here's one possibility. Places that sell smoked fish (there are a couple in Two Harbors and one in Knife River) often offer smoked cisco (tulibee), and a lot of them are bigger than what you find frozen. Might be worth getting in touch with places like that (there must be smoke houses in the Twin Cities area) and see if you can sort through some of the cisco before they smoke it.

[fisherman]

Alagnak,

If you are going through Grand Rapids, Bens Bait should have frozen Ciscoes or Smelt. Might want to look up his phone number and check with there if you are heading throught that area.