Parkers Prairie Lions Club kicks off smelt fry season in OTC

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

April is the time of year when organizations in Otter Tail County and the surrounding area serve smelt. In recent years the Lions Club in Parkers Prairie, which held its annual smelt fry this year on Saturday, April 11, has added pollock to the menu, knowing that some people prefer regular fish to smelt.

Some first timers at smelt fries are surprised when they learn that good-eating smelt only weigh about three ounces and are three to four inches in length. This year, as in previous years, the event at the Prairie Event Center in Parkers Prairie featured smelt, fish, French fries, coleslaw with French dressing, bread and beverage such as lemonade.

The Lions Club in Parkers Prairie and other organizations serving smelt throughout Otter Tail County use proceeds from smelt fries to give back to various good causes in their communities.

Catching smelt with nets, during nighttime hours, was a rite of spring in Minnesota in the heyday of the 1970s and 1980s. For many people, this venture included holding a net in one hand and a can of beer in the other hand at a river near Duluth.

However, the presence of Chinook salmon, along with resurgent Lake Superior lake trout numbers, contributed to the smelt’s downfall.

In the early 1970s more than 1.5 million pounds of smelt were caught annually in trap nets by Minnesota commercial harvesters. Thirty years later, at the turn of the century, that same harvest had dwindled dramatically. Thus came the switch to Lake Michigan smelt.

For many years the Parkers Prairie Lions Club ordered close to 1,200 pounds of smelt and had hundreds of people coming to the annual smelt fry. This was a two-day event for several years.