How cool. What a vivid image. My brothers did the same thing with the nets. Somehow I got tricked into cleaning the smelt, too.....
Manitowoc!! Hardly ever see that name online. But never heard of chub. Is that like carp?
Chub look like a bigger smelt, about a foot long, heads & tails on, came 4-6? in a box, wrapped in plastic, oily, smoked to a rich golden hue. Eat them right out of the box.
Last year while in Milwaukee I couldn't find a decent Friday night fish fry. Smoked chub weren't in the genral market places either.