BREANNA SCHMIDT enjoys herself at the Solon Township Hall during the Cedar Rod and Gun Club's 47th annual Smelt Dinner Friday. She was joined by her parents Fred and Noreen Schmidt and infant brother Kyle.

Neither wind nor snow could keep the masses from attending the Cedar Rod and Gun Club's 47th annual Smelt Dinner of Friday afternoon and evening, although near-blizzard conditions did put a small dent in the expected turnout.

“With the weather being what it was we were wondering if people would show up,” said Greg Julian, a club officer. Apparently, the lure of battered smelt was stronger than the desire to stay out of the cold as more than 700 people were served at the dinner.

“We usually serve between 900 to 1,000. Under the circumstances, with the snow and the roads, I thought we would have trouble getting people here,” Julian said.
The Smelt Dinner is one of the club’s major fundraisers. Families from as far away as Cleveland came and by 4:30 p.m. it was standing room only with a 15- to 20-minute wait to be seated.

Julian said that each year the club brings in 1,000 pounds of frozen smelt that has been factory cleaned. Cedar Rod and Gun Club members spend the Wednesday and Thursday evenings preceding the dinner doing an additional cleaning of the small fish to make sure the meat is as free of tiny bones as possible.

“Everything went really well. We had more than enough club members volunteer for the dinner and the cleaning of the smelt,” Julian said.

Fred and Noreen Schmidt of Traverse City brought their two young children, Breanna and Kyle, to the dinner Friday. “We first came to the dinner two years ago and we just love it. It’s a lot of fun, something you can bring the family to,” Fred Schmidt said.