Posco -

You got that right, sir. I lived in the Copper basin in 81-86. The Kuskokwim Basin from 1987 to 1998. Then Sitka (without burbot, only the lowly halibut) for 5 years, then back to Fairbanks from 2003-2008. Had an airplane and fished a lot...

Jack

victor#0
thanks for posting. Good chores for learning the youngsters !

Lush fish is what they are called here.Or (Maneganuk) in Yupik Eskimo. They are prized over all other fish in winter. The meat is sweet and delicious, but the liver is the best part.

Thank you for the info, Jack. Would I be correct in thinking that this fish caught in very cold waters , would not have such a chance of parasites ?

I know a turtle trapper , of snappers, back east , she is adamant to never catch turtles from any rivers, only clean lakes. Doing this for years, she eats the meat , and sells it . She says that every river , no matter where it is, Alaska included, has contaminants in it from other sources. Whether mining , dumping, etc. So she won't touch the meat from turtles caught in rivers.

I would think it would be just the opposite, but she is the expert and that is what she swears by.

That probably doesn't have much in common with these fish, but I did think of it from a dirty water or too hot in climate , point of view.

It seems to me, that fish from very clean cold northern waters wouldn't have those problems as they can from hotter , or more stagnant sources. I'm probably wrong, but that is my thought .

Cool photos, folks! I enjoy eating Burbot, but hardly get to catch any more these days. There are Burbot in many of Michigan's deeper lakes where people fish for smelt and lake Trout. They are very common Great Lakes fish as well. But many people don't realize that they are also native to most of the watersheds in Michigan, even the small headwaters where folks normally fish for Brookies. I have caught them numerous times while fishing for steelhead in the spring in rivers like the Grand, Rogue, Muskegon and Manistee. Even in small waters separated from the Great lakes by several large dams that are too high for them to get over and that don't have a fish ladder. A friend regularly gets them in his crayfish traps in a tributary of the Muskegon River only about 6 miles from my place. When I caught them while steelheading I always assumed they were lake-run fish from Lake Michigan. When I caught one in a small feeder stream about 200 miles upstream, and three huge dams above Lake Michigan I was surprised and called our nearest Fisheries Biologist. He thought I was mis identifying the fish and I'd caught a Bowfin instead. I later learned that Burbot were listed as native to that stream many years earlier when the Department of Conservation (now called the DNR) first did census of the streams fish types. Odd that the biologist did not know that. None of the Burbot I have caught in these streams have ever been much over 12-14 inches or so long. I see Great Lakes fish of several pounds.

Catch theme here in early spring in the rivers when fishing for pickerel and sturgeon.
I eat them and find them OK to eat.Most people here wont eat them.

I remeber some people around Barbers bay (Fredrickhouse lake,a backwater of the Fredrickhouse river) would set lines out for them in March thru the ice in the channells.

During the ice fishing Derby here....some caught are 8-10 pounds

The NH. Cusk record is ....35" .12 pounds

local delicacy catch them in green bay where the door and garden peninsulas meet

call them lawyers here , one of my favorites

Ours is 11 lbs 4 oz last I read.

We have them here in ND. State record is 19lbs 8 ozs. I used to fish them in the spring in MT. I never fished them here, but I have caught a few.

Jack
I hate to disagree with you but as far as I know there are no burbot in the Clark Fork. They are a little farther north in the Kootenai.

Burbot are an important food source in the winter here., and the most sought after fish of them all.

They used to set traps specifically for burbot, the traps are big, and a lot of work to set through the ice. A fence of poles were submerged under the ice outwards from the bank to funnel them into the trap. It took at least four men to check it, one on each corner to lift it and the fish out of the water. I used to help with one trap, and all the fish were divided equally with the men that help set and check it.

In my opinion burbot are only good to eat in the winter. I tried eating them a few times in the summer, and the meat was rubbery and the liver was shrunken and green, and the fish was skinny. I could not eat it. In the fall /early winter, like now they have just gorged on Lamprey eels and are fat and good. The fish must be fresh and not frozen. I prefer alive.

Mostly just plain boiled or chowder is made.The liver is prized. The intestines are cleaned out and braided while still attached to the head and boiled in salt water.
The elders will tell a story to the kids while eating the head, each of the bones in the head represent an animal in the story like birds and fish and so on.

I've caught countless Burbot in the winter on Lake of the Woods but don't recall ever catching one in the summer.

we used to catch a lot of them through the ice, A friend of mine had a commercial fishing license and would set fish trap nets through the ice, they would catch 1000s of them and put them back every year I would get a FISH TOTE OF THEM to clean, around a 100 of them, my uncle would want all the livers , them always said the livers were better than the fish, sharon never heard of parasites' in them and never seen any, and I have clean 1000s of them, very good eating fish!!!!

Gotya Sundance. I'm not a north Idahoan, and for some reason I thought I'd heard "Clark Fork". My mistake, sir. Thanks for correcting me. Just over the hill from me is Clark Canyon Reservoir. There are burbot in there. It is drained by the Beaverhead River which eventually gets into the Clark Fork. Because of that, I made the assumption that burbot were in the Clark Fork River. Thank you.

Jack

Yukonjeff -

Thanks for the further education, sir. Excellent write-up and photograph. You add a whole lot of burbot information. We've eaten them every month of the year from the Tanana (not a lot from July). As you mentioned, the summer fish were a bit skinny, and livers were shrunken. The meat and livers were eaten, however. In 5 years on the Tanana, we never saw any other people that were rod-and-reel fishing for burbot. Never even heard of anyone fishing. Had it all to ourselves.

They are considered an invasive species in the Green River system of Wyoming. I have caught a few over there.

Never caught or ate them, but always kind of wanted to, particularly with the name "freshwater ling", I do like me some ling cod. Having not tried them I can't comment on them being the best eating fish, but out of all the fish, fresh or saltwater, that I have eaten, sturgeon would have to be at the top of the list by me.

I believe there are some in the Clark Fork, Jack, but the Kootenai is the river known for them and the only place I've ever heard of anyone fishing them.

My apologies Jack. I have lived all my life in north Idaho and never heard of them being in the Clark Fork river system. Maybe they will make it down to Idaho some day,