Nick - Your post reminded me of my college days. Smelt dipping was the first fishery of the year (early April), and a real blast. Northshore of Lake Michigan. The smelt would run at night, so we would build huge campfires along the rivers, drink enough beer to drown a horse, and wait with steel dip nets for the huge schools of smelt to charge upstream. You could catch a gallon in one scoop. Tradition says you had to bite the head off the first one you caught. I remember my GF at the time did that with considerable enthusiasm! How many women have you ever seen bite the head off a live fish....

Great times, great memories.