It took us about 6 hours to drive up to Port Henry (stopped in Albany to buy licenses)Staying at the Collins Motel was great. It was about a 5 minute drive to the public boat ramp and only $66 per night for 2 people. We rented a 4 hole shanty from "Pete Hanson's Shanty Rentals". What a deal. $30 for the day.
We met Pete at the boat ramp at 6:30am on Friday. It was still dark and a full near white out snowstorm. After loading up his F250 with our gear, he proceeded to drive us out about a mile to the shanty. Pete operates about 9 shanties. Throughout the season he and others keep the road plowed.
The ride out was nuts. There was over a foot of Water on the road (over the ice). There is a plowed road out to the shanty town and with all the weight and the melting the road flooded out.
Once out to the shanty, Pete gave us an 8 hole shanty at no extra cost. It was very roomy. There were 8 holes and a propane heater.
With a quick demo on how to jig and cut the bait (you catch Smelt with Smelt) we were off and catching fish.
We were both jigging with rods as well as using the unique hanging system (see pic). The hanging system is great. From the ceiling hangs a small wooden drop line. Every wind of line is a foot. We caught word that the Smelt were biting at 35' so we started jigging around 35'.
The first day (11 hours of fishing) we caught and cleaned around 50 fish. Not bad for our first time out. Other than Smelt, the only other fish that was caught was a Cisco, a.k.a. Herring.
