Far Eastern smelt: features, beneficial properties and best recipes

Kinds

This small fish belongs to the smelt family. It also includes the familiar capelin.

There are several varieties of smelt, which differ in size and lifespan. This:

Smelt (European species). Its weight reaches an average of 6-8 grams, size from 9 to 10 centimeters, life expectancy up to three years. This is the smallest representative.
Asian (American) catfish. It grows up to 35 centimeters, weighing up to 350 grams per individual, lifespan up to 11 years, the largest representative.
Saltwater smallmouth. This is the Far Eastern smelt. It is medium in size, up to 25 centimeters in length, weighing up to 160 grams. Lifespan is up to 8 years.

The Far Eastern smelt differs from the other two species in having a smaller mouth, a forward lower jaw, and a shorter dorsal fin.

Typical smelt

This is the basic genus, which bears the Latin name Osmerus and determines the appearance of related taxa (European, Asian) and their local populations:

elongated torpedo-shaped body (15–40 cm);
incomplete lateral line;
the presence of adipose and notched caudal fins;
large upper mouth with protruding lower jaw;
many small teeth;
olive back;
silvery, lean sides;
light belly;
triangular head with large eyes.

The body is covered with rather large shiny scales (60–66 pieces in a row), which do not adhere tightly to the skin and easily fall off when exposed to external influences. The dorsal fin with 7–14 rays is located in the middle of the body, has a narrow base and is shaped like a sail with a posterior notch.

Depending on the specific habitat, feeding habits and species characteristics, some morphological characteristics may differ from the “standards” described above.

Asian catfish

This semi-anadromous species tolerates salty and desalinated water well. Prefers coastal and pre-estuarine areas of seas with shallow depths and an abundance of zooplankton. It has a confusing classification and several equivalent names. In addition to the “Asian” (Osmerus mordax), it is often called “catfish”, “Far Eastern”, “Pacific” or “American” smelt.

This situation has developed due to the wide geography of the taxon’s habitat - Alaska, Canada, Japan, South Korea, the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Chukotka, Primorsky Krai. The cold-loving fish thrives in the seas of the Arctic and Pacific oceans (Okhotsk, White, Barents, Japan, Chukotka). Enters the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, Amur, Anadyr.

Toothed smelt

The Asian smelt is the largest representative of the genus. It will grow up to 38–40 cm and weigh 350–400 g. It has large sharp teeth and leads a predatory lifestyle, hunting cod, herring and whitefish. It is an important component of the nutrition of salmon in the sea, perch, pike perch and pike in fresh water. Puberty occurs at 3–4 years. Life expectancy is 9–11 years.

To learn more:

Features of catching pike on girders

Smelt spawning occurs from April to June in rivers and on lightly salted shelves at water temperatures of +3–8 °C. Females choose areas with slow currents and shallow depths of 2–5 meters. Average fecundity is 350–400 thousand sticky eggs with a diameter of 0.9–1.1 mm, which are securely attached to a solid substrate. The development time of larvae depends on the intensity of water heating to a temperature of +12–14 °C and is usually 2–3 weeks.

In the first year of life, American smelt feeds on protein-rich zooplankton and grows to a length of 5–9 cm. Then the diet is gradually replenished with mysids, amphipods, crustaceans, and fry. After rolling down from rivers into the sea, the young remain in coastal desalinated zones for several years (until the onset of sexual maturity).

European smelt

A common species (Osmerus eperlanus) with a semi-anadromous lifestyle. Compared to the Asian taxon, it has less developed teeth and a shortened lateral line.

The basis of nutrition is:

zooplankton and benthic organisms;
crustaceans and caviar;
worms and aquatic insects.

Much less often, European smelt preys on fry of carp, herring, perch and cod. Lives 10–12 years. It grows up to 30–35 cm and weighs 250–300 g. It is customary to distinguish several populations with an identical exterior, but different periods of puberty, which directly depend on the climatic conditions of the habitat (see table).

Subspecies	Time of onset of puberty, years
Baltic	2–4
Belomorsky	3–4
Siberian	5–7

The longer the maturation occurs, the longer the life and the greater the final mass of the fish. There is also a freshwater dwarf form (Osmerus eperlanus spirinchus) - lake smelt or smelt, which lives only 2-3 years and grows no more than 10-15 cm in length. Due to its modest size and excellent taste, this subspecies is officially the smallest commercial fish catching

European smelt lives in the basin and on the shallow shelf of the seas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans (Baltic, Northern, Norwegian, Barents). It is found in the Neva, the Gulf of Finland, on the Upper Volga, in large lakes and reservoirs - Beloye, Onega, Ladoga, Kuibyshevskoye, Gorkovskoye, Rybinskoye.

In addition to smelt, smelt fish has another freshwater subspecies (Osmerus eperlanus) with its own common name - naked . It inhabits the lakes of the northwestern regions of the European part of the Russian Federation and differs from other related taxa by its obvious dwarfism (dwarfism), enlarged pupils and small scales, which easily fall off when touched, making the fish “naked.”

To learn more:

Halibut: types of fish, differences and lifestyle features

What does it feed on, how does it spawn?

Smelt feeds mainly on zooplankton, but will not refuse the eggs of its relatives, and can also feast on young animals.

Smelt eats most of all in summer and autumn. This happens near the shores of its habitat.

The fish reaches sexual maturity in the first and second years of life. In all 8 years, she spawns only three times. In the southern regions of its habitat, spawning takes place from April to May, in the northern regions - in June.

St. Petersburg fishermen go fishing for smelt as early as December. At this time, only small specimens can be caught, and the catch will be small. For larger prey you need to go in January and February.

Fishing for smelt is exciting and interesting, especially when the bite is active. Let's get acquainted with the manner of catching smelt.

Smallmouth smelt

It is a small schooling fish that lives in the salt water of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, only occasionally entering desalinated bays and bays. It is found in the Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan and Bering Sea off the coast of Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, and the south of Primorsky Krai.

The genus consists of several externally identical forms. The most common species is the smallmouth smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) with very small teeth and a short upper jaw. The incomplete lateral line contains 10–14 scales. It grows in length up to 22–25 cm. The maximum weight does not exceed 150–160 g.

The remaining related subspecies are characterized by a more modest range and dimensions:

Pacific (transpacificus) is an endangered endemic to San Francisco Bay (California). Standard length is 6–8 cm.
Japanese (H. japonicus) - inhabits the basin of the Sea of Japan and Okhotsk. The fish can be found in the lower reaches of the Amur, off the coast and in the reservoirs of Southern Sakhalin, Honshu Island, and the Kuril Islands. Grows up to 12–15 cm.
common or river (olidus) - lives in rivers, lakes and low-salinity pre-estuarine areas of Pacific Ocean watercourses in the Alaska region and the coast of northeast Asia, including the Russian Far East. It has freshwater residential forms in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and in the lakes of the Amur basin. Reaches a length of 10–12 cm and weighs 9–11 g.

Sexual maturity of smallmouth smelt occurs early, already in the second or third year of life. Spawning takes place in April - June. Typically, shallow water in the surf zone with a sandy bottom and an abundance of algae is used for this. The remaining semi-anadromous and local subspecies prefer to lay eggs in river tributaries, choosing for this purpose shallows with an abundance of hard substrate and gentle currents.

DIY bait for Far Eastern smelt

For any fishing, you need to use bait that attracts schools of fish to the fishing spot. If you try and lure the fish, it will bite better, and this is a guarantee of a catch.

Smelt is a special animal. Bait for her is a separate topic that needs to be considered in more detail. We want to tell you exactly what bait should be used and how to do it.

In winter, Far Eastern individuals enter bays and river mouths, where the depths are relatively shallow, so the fishing areas are covered with a reliable layer of ice. Smelt is a small, but predatory fish. Therefore, to catch it, it is worth using live or imitation live gear. Live food should also be present in the bait.

In winter, Far Eastern smelt swims under the ice in search of plankton. She is especially interested in krill. You can use cunning to lure the fish to your fishing spot using purchased krill. In stores for fishermen, this product is sold frozen, and the manufacturer is most often China or Japan.

Many fishermen, wanting to increase the volume of complementary food, make it themselves, adding other products to the krill. The most commonly used is maggot. It can be clean or tinted.

You can add minced meat, fish shavings, shrimp shell and crab powders to the krill. Turmeric is a great idea for complementary feeding. For this purpose, regular flour, milk powder or fine sand can be used.

Catching smelt

Migration from the sea to rivers begins long before spring spawning. Numerous flocks gather in the coastal zone, bays and river mouths since autumn. During the cold season, their number and density only increases. At the same time, the fish does not stop feeding, remains active around the clock, and does not fall into suspended animation. It is winter and early spring that is the optimal season for amateur fishing for borage using hand tackle.

Catching smelt

Ice fishing

Successful smelt fishing does not require special knowledge of the reservoir. The location of a school is easily tracked by the abundance of people in a particular area of a lake, river or frozen bay. Standard fishing depths are 4–8 meters, but often reach 20–30 meters. In cold water, the fish tries to stay close to the bottom, but does not sink to the ground. The greatest number of bites occurs in the bottom layer, when the bait has almost reached its maximum immersion or has just begun to rise.

The modest dimensions of the smelt fish determine the simplicity and accessibility of the gear:

light winter fishing rod with a spool or reel;
a significant supply of thin monofilament with a thickness of 0.1-0.16 mm;
sensitive nod;
small jig with a diameter of 3–5 mm.

If borage fishing is carried out at significant depths or currents, you should use a stiffer fishing rod, a fishing line up to 0.2-0.25 mm thick and installation with a retractable leash, which involves installing a sinker weighing 20–40 g. As a catchable bait on Bloodworms, maggots, worms, pieces of fresh perch or ruff have proven themselves to be excellent for smelt.

The predatory inclinations of the fish provide the opportunity for spectacular fishing with small spinners 5–6 mm long of silver, gray or copper color, which are often complemented by bright “plumage”. At the same time, the beard is cut off from the hook, so that during intense biting you do not waste extra time pulling the sting out of the bony mouth of the small fish.

Open water fishing

Occurs from the shore, bridge, pier or boat at depths of 3–5 meters. The most active bite is in April - May and September - October.

To learn more:

Fish of the flounder family: description of varieties

Three types of gear are used:

Ultralight spinning rod with a spinning reel and a small spinner.
Classic donka with 4–5 phosphorus jigs.
Sensitive feeder rod with “tyrant” equipment – 3–5 shiny hooks No. 16–18 on short double leads with pieces of red latex or threads attached. A flat sinker or a large spoon is tied to the main line, which, when moving vertically, oscillates from side to side, giving a “fun” game to the hooks.

In addition to inedible baits, you can successfully catch smelt in the summer using natural baits - bloodworms, worms, maggots, strips of fresh perch, crucian carp, ruffe.

How to properly feed smelt

If fishing takes place in places with weak currents or in standing water, then the bait will be the same as when catching other fish. You need to add bait little by little, wait a little and cast the fishing rod.

If the current is obvious, then ordinary bait will not work; the bait will simply be carried away from the fishing spot. In this case, we need to make balls from bait, clay and sand. There should be more bait than other components. The ball will reach the bottom, will disintegrate, the particles will slowly rise up, and only then will they be blown away. But the time until the bait rises to the surface is enough to attract smelt.

Tackle, bait and bait

For bait you need to use fillet pieces of ruffe, crab sticks, hake, perch, and smelt itself. In terms of productivity, they are the same, and which is better is decided on the spot.

The best bait is the eelpout, as it is durable. It is better to use such an attachment in conjunction with a shelf fishing rod, which is used for active biting.

The fishing rod should be comfortable, because fishing will take a lot of time with a good bite, which you will definitely get if you use the baits and baits we recommend.

How to deliciously cook Far Eastern smelt? We suggest we talk about this further.

Soup

Far Eastern smelt soup, the recipe for which we offer, is very aromatic and satisfying.

Cooking will not take much time, and the pleasure of eating this soup will be guaranteed.

The first step is to prepare a broth base from potatoes and onions. Take two large potatoes and a medium-sized onion. Cut into convenient pieces, throw them into boiling water, add parsley and a little celery.
After the base has boiled, you need to add peppercorns (four of them are enough), a couple of bay leaves, nutmeg and salt.
Ten smelts need to be peeled and added to the soup after the potatoes have become soft.
After boiling, cook for no more than three minutes, remove bay leaves and pepper.
You can decorate the soup with herbs.

Fried smelt

This is the most common dish, which, like soup, can be prepared in a matter of minutes. You can fry Far Eastern smelt using the usual method, or you can also fry it in batter. Let's consider both options.

Regular way:

Clean the fish, decapitate it, and roll it in a mixture of flour and salt.
Place in a hot frying pan with vegetable oil, cover with a lid.
Fry each side for five minutes.

Breaded:

Sprinkle the cleaned fish with salt and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.
Mix the egg with milk (one tablespoon of milk per egg).
Dip the fish into the egg and milk mixture, then into the flour.
Fry until the batter is golden brown, covered.

capelin

In the smelt family, the genus Mallotus villosus, which is better known under the common name capelin, has the greatest commercial importance. The name uyok is used less frequently. Found throughout the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The fish can also be found in many seas of the Arctic Ocean. Leads a gregarious lifestyle and never leaves salt waters. Prefers the upper and middle layers with depths of 100–300 meters. It easily tolerates temperature changes and prolonged absence of food.

To learn more:

Char: description of red fish

Like most smelt, capelin is an omnivorous fish with predatory tendencies. In food it prefers zooplankton, crustaceans, eggs, larvae and fry, including its own species. It has a large toothy mouth and can make rapid dashes. Lives up to 8–10 years. The maximum length of the slender elongated body reaches 23–25 cm. Due to the vastness of the range, the spawning times of different populations vary greatly from April to October.

Sexual maturity occurs at 2–4 years of age. Average fecundity is 30–60 thousand eggs with a diameter of 0.5–1.2 mm. The incubation period depends on the water temperature and can last 10–50 days.

Baking

There are several ways to prepare baked smelt; let’s look at two that you’ll definitely like.

Simple recipe:

We clean the fish, rub it with paprika, coriander and chopped garlic, don’t forget about salt.
Place the carcasses on a greased baking dish and sprinkle with a little lemon juice.
The oven temperature should be 220 degrees, bake for twenty minutes.

Baking for sauce lovers:

Place half a kilo of tomatoes canned in their own juice on a baking sheet, mix with a little salt, add a teaspoon of sugar and herbs.
Place cleaned, pre-fried smelt on top.
Place chopped garlic and whole cherry tomatoes (about 300 grams) on the fish.
Sprinkle a little vegetable oil and bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees.

Dried Far Eastern smelt

This is a favorite treat for men with beer. Let's consider the simplest recipe so that extra flavors do not interrupt the main one.

Pour water into a container and add salt well. Determine the amount of salt using peeled potatoes. Place it in water, add salt little by little, stirring constantly. The potatoes have floated - there is enough salt.
Next, add soy sauce (for 12 liters of water - 320 milliliters of sauce).
Place the fish in the sauce, cover with a weight (5-6 kilograms).
After five hours, add a tablespoon of vinegar.
After an hour, remove the fish, rinse well under running water, and leave for an hour to drain.
After this, the carcasses need to be rinsed in slightly sweetened water and allowed to drain again.
You should hang the fish only in a well-ventilated area.

So, we have looked at the simplest and most popular recipes for preparing Far Eastern smelt, now let’s see why it should be eaten.

Benefits of smelt

This fish is fatty and filling, but quite low in calories. One hundred grams contains about 100 kcal, so it will not add excess weight.

Smelt is very beneficial for health. It contains:

Proteins, fatty acids.
Vitamins D and PP.
High potassium content, therefore useful for people with heart and vascular diseases.
Calcium, iron, phosphorus (also contained in large quantities).
Magnesium, sulfur, fluorine, sodium, chromium, nickel, molybdenum and chlorine.

Smelt is good for everyone to eat, including children.

What does smelt eat?

Photo: Far Eastern smelt

Fish belonging to the smelt family feed actively, regardless of the time of year. But smelt is especially voracious in summer and autumn. Because these small fish have sharp teeth on their jaws, smelts are considered predators. The smelt's mouth is naturally small, but its teeth are numerous.

Small predators often prefer depth, not only to hide from other predators, but also to find food for themselves: to catch fry, smaller fish than the smelt itself. Smelt also feeds on eggs laid by other fish, planktonic algae, dipteran insects and their larvae, and crustaceans. By the way, the gluttony of this fish means that fishermen who love smelt, as a rule, are not left without a good catch. Depending on their size and the structure of the oral cavity, different types of smelt have their own food preferences.

Due to its size, which is different from larger individuals, a small naked has, accordingly, a small mouth. The teeth on the jaws of this fish are small and weak. Therefore, smallmouth smelt catches fry and eats crustaceans, larvae, and caviar. And due to the fact that the small mouth is directed upward, it also feeds on flying dipterous insects.

Since European and Asian smelt are the largest of the smelt family, they have a large mouth and strong teeth. These fish have their own feeding habits. They feed on bottom crustaceans, plankton, chironomid larvae (representatives of the order Diptera), and small fish. It happens that in the stomach of a smelt one finds its brothers - smaller smelts. This is explained by the fact that “tribesmen” eat each other in those bodies of water where there is no other food.