View of women smelt fishing at Escanaba, Michigan. Printed on front: "Smelt fishing, Escanaba, Mich." Printed on back: "The annual Smelt Fishing Jamboree takes place the first week-end in April which marks the start the start of a two week spawning run, when millions of the silver bellied fish start running from Lake Michigan up the various streams in the district. Made in U.S.A. by E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Photo by Selkirk Studio."
Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library
A smelt from Hokkaido, Japan. The fish is said to resemble a willow leaf, and its Japanese name, 柳葉魚, reflects this; shishamo, is derived from the Ainu name for the same fish, susam. In Japanese cuisine, this fish is grilled or fried whole and served with its roe intact. Due to declining catches in recent years, attempts have been made to commercially farm the fish in Japan.
Smelt lives in a pond. It's a cheerful pond. With greenish water. Sand. And algae. Usually, everything is green here. And the smelt knows this place well. There's a pond here. And it's big. Really big. And there are places where you can swim somewhere else. A whole corridor from which you can get to all sorts of places. A river. A lake.
And underground passages. Filled with water. There are even more places to visit. And including swimming to visit other fish. Smelt often swim to pike and carp. The water is full of algae. And the food always seems to float by itself. It's convenient. Other fish don't have this. They are very surprised when they come to visit. It's a unique place in its own way.
The water here is excellent. The pay is good. This is the fish's home. Its very own home. The fish, though small, loves to swim everywhere. And it swims a lot. Everything is overgrown with algae. Even the surface. And the bottom. It's quite cozy here. And if you want, you can swim through the underground passage—anywhere. For example, into the lake with blue water. The water there is slightly different. And the lake is huge. It probably even seems endless.
The smelt fish also swims around a lot. It's great to chat with the other fish and find out what's new. With one fish, you can play Dendy. With another, you can see the wonders of Super Nintendo. And there's also a smart fish that is learning computer technology. That's amazing! One day, the smelt fish will go to school too. But for now, she'll play Dendy.
The pond is nice and interesting.
The fish lives here. In a house. A house made of sand. And there are many rooms there. Big and small. There's even room for a Dendy console. The fish creates new rooms out of the sand from time to time. This used to be a shore. And now the fish is digging inside the room. The sand is easy to dig in. And it's quite hard. It holds its shape well.
The fish may be small, but it has a lot of space here. Lots of rooms. And lots of friends. Other fish. And also a platypus. The fish made friends with him in one of the other worlds. He also has a whole water world. Only there's grass and a surface there.
This world should have a surface too. But the fish knows nothing about it. It swims around in the water. The platypus promised to come over someday. And see what's on the surface and tell us. And for now, the fish swims around. And waits for his favorite TV series to start. On fish TV.
Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.
