In my opinion, hands down, the finest freshwater table-fare is the burbot. We've caught 'em every way imaginable in every month of the year. Most commonly, people catch 'em through the ice with set-lines, but we also caught burbot (lawyers, eel-pout, fresh-water ling, lush, Lota lota) in fishwheels, on rod and reel in summer, and through the ice in gill nets.


Miss Lisa with a couple of bubot caught on rod-and-reel from the Tanana River, Alaska. For bait, we used red-backed voles or chunks of lamprey. The Sportfish biologists always did well with chunks of whitefish.



Spring ice-fishing on the Tanana.



Mixed bag from open water in October.



Our fishwheel on the Copper River. Mainly for reds (sockeye salmon), but we'd always get a few bonus fish (burbot).



Kinda homely, but taste is fantastic.


Never bothered me much, but I'm sure we'll get comments about the high content of worms sometimes encyisted in the flesh. Most often caught in rivers, but can be good fishing in ponds and lakes.

Great info and photos
worms fry up

I've eaten them in Rock bass

Caught many while fishing through the ice on lake of the woods.

Can usually tell if it's a Burbotski by the tell tale ( thumping) while realing in.

I have caught them through the ice from Sullivan and Bead Lakes in north eastern Washington. We can now fish for them in the Kootenai River and Bonner Lake in north Idaho but I haven't made it up there yet. One of my planned trips this winter.

Because of the no scales on this fish it is a taboo for Jewish people to eat this.

First story I heard from a retired HBC post manager was how he lost his ice spud and was shown how to put one live burbot on a line and it swam around the spud and he retrieved it. The story was told during a crib game and it went on and on till the game ended.

Every winter we would catch them on Lake MilleLacs. Haven't caught one in years anymore. I don't know what happened to them. There isn't much meat on them. Just along the upper back and tail. I've eaten them, but didn't think they were as tasty as perch or walleyes.

Oh, meant to say those are some great photos. Thanks for the post!

Thanks for sharing, Jack. Never had one of those, myself....I admit, anytime I hear of a parasite risk , I recoil from eating it. No matter if it is cooked. Just me.

They are called .Cusk ..in this paaht of the woods

Excellent chowdah fish...white and firm meat

Interesting, Nessie. I've never heard the moniker "Cusk". Learned something new. Thanks...

Jack, are they in the catfish family? They resemble a long skinny channel cat!

Pic taken at the Annual Meridith Rotary ice fishing Derby...lake Winnipesaukee NH

We catch them in NW Ontario early in spring when fishing on the bottom for trout. Normally using ciscos fishing on the bottom. Never caught any as big as the ones in your pic that’s for sure! We call them Ling. What’s your favorite way of cooking them?

The folks that live in the little Siberian village featured in “Happy People” live on Ling the whole winter it seems.

No, Lee. From what little I know, they are related to cod. I believe the only freshwater cod. One central "whisker" rather than two.

Jack

Well I wish I'd not heard anything else about them, they sound good , from the description of the meat. I would want to try it.

Sharon -

The Clark Fork has reasonable numbers. Up until a couple years ago, harvesting them across the border in Idaho was not legal. They have since opened a season in Idaho. Far as I know, always legal in Montana. Utah, last I heard, has a regulation to kill every one of them that you can.

The Tanana and Copper are a ways removed from each other. You got around, Jack. Wish I would have taken advantage of that. I made do with halibut.

Poor mans lobster, good tasting fish.

Would catch many of them on Oneida lake in NY ice fishing. They would feed right along with the walleye. Sadly they are few left. The cormorants are to blame. Oneida lake is a shallow body of water and the burbot are sluggish in the warm summer water. The young burbot were decimated by the invasive cormorants. They can easily dive to the depths that burbot summer in.
Many people also relish the burbot livers.
Many names for them I've heard on that lake, some include
Coney
Cusk
Lush
Birdbolt
My friend had his own term: Poor mans lobster
He would parboil them like monkfish and dip them in butter

Burbot is a big part of our diet over the winter months. Checking the burbot sets and rabbit snares is the kids chores before homeschool.

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,

Thank you for that info, because after all I've been hearing about them, and that plate of nice looking fish on Jeff's pic, I'd sure like to try it sometime.

Many thanks, bearcat2. I'm surprised they're not thick in the Clark Fork, but I'll certainly defer to Sundance, since that's his back yard. Thanks, guys.

Jack

The same was true on MilleLacs. But, I haven't caught any in the winter in years. When there were a lot of them caught in winter, most folks threw them out on the ice for the scavengers to eat.

Not sure if they still have it, but Leech Lake in MN always had a Eelpout festival every winter. I saw photos of some of them which were in the 8-10 pound catagory.

I can find some articles stating there are burbot in the lower Clark Fork but nothing about where other then one saying they were planted in Cabinet Gorge Reservoir. Nothing about if there is a fishable population but one ice fishing post that says there is. You(me) learn something new every day. If they are in the Clark Fork someday they should be below my house but maybe not in my lifetime.

Ling- bearbutt remains
Make a great draw station.
In Wyoming they are a game fish on the Atlantic side of the continent divide.
On the Pacific side they are considered invasive.
What's interesting is you can't use any game animal parts for bait in Wyoming.
So if you catch Ling- baerbutt on the Pacific side you can use them for bait anywhere in the state.
Atlantic cought fish cant be used.
Go figure.

Actually, I've never heard of people rod-and-reel fishing for them in Alaska in the summer. It's something my wife and I put a lot of time into, and figured it out. I still suspect there are very few people who partake. We would find a back eddy. Park the boat, sit on the bank like catfishing, build a campfire, get out the crib board, and start fishing. Like I said earlier, chunks of lamprey we'd dig out of the mud on the Chena or red-backed vole for bait. I enjoyed watching the rod tips wiggle, and the dogs always had a blast.

Jack

Jack I have fished for burbot in the summer on the Tanana just north of Delta Junction with rod and reel but its been years. We would use hot dogs or parts of grayling for bait. Seemed like the bite would be best late in the evening or early morning. Never thought of using voles and at that time had no idea how to get lampreys or that they spawned in interior river systems. I was used to seeing them on the Gulkana but always assumed they rode along on the kings since we would see the marks from them on them.

I have eaten a few and they are good...........BUT those big nasty brown worms the size of your pinky, makes me shun them these days

The lampreys drop off the salmon when they leave the salt water to enter the freshwater rivers. They dont run themselves until late October and November and mostly under the ice.
They spawn in the mud, its probably how Jack digs them out for fishing.

Seems like they bite at night here.

Where in the copper basin did you live? You must have been working for ADF&G? My wife's mom married a guy who had a farm across from Wengers store. Later she moved to a property below and behind the store. We own that property now. There is a fishwheel basket, axle just like in your pic in our yard. My wife finished high-school in Glanallen in 75. She remembers community fishwheels.
Most of my burbot catches were in fishnets on the Yukon fishing for salmon for winter dog team food.

martentrapper -

In the Copper River country, I lived for a couple years next to Tazlina Glacier Lodge on Smokey Lake. Then I bought a place down on Tazlina Terrace between Glennallen and Copper Center. Yes, I did work for ADF&G at the time, involved in the Susitna studies. Bob Tobey was the Game Division Area Biologist at the time.

Were you around Fog Lakes, Jack? Tsisi Lake?

Yes. I spent some time around Fog Lakes. We were stayting at Watana Camp on the north side of the Su, and a fixed-wing guy dropped me off at one of the Fog Lakes about 1000. At about 1600, I figured he forgot me (or had airplane problems, etc.), and I started putting together a camp for the night. We were collaring grizzlies, and there were two rather belligerent ones with me that I'd just collared. About the time I had a survivable camp put together, in came the plane and picked me up right at dark. You know Fog Lakes?

I do. I hunted in there a few times, spring and fall. I loved the area and remember the camp on the far side of the river from the lakes. We could see the lights at night.

The camp I believe you're talking about would have been at the base of the mountains in the distance behind my hunting partners. And a nice Fog Lakes grizzly.

Thanks Posco. Neat to see those photos. Looks like a good bruin!

Jack

Fresh liver is the best bait I know of for burbot fishing. Early evening until morning is the best time around rocky points. You can also chum these areas ahead of time and increase your catch.

Jack was probably using the young lamprey called Ammocoetes which look like the lure "twister tails" they feed on aquatic insects for several years.

When ice fishing at night light suspended under water over a rock reef that the lake trout spawned last fall is a spot the lines dont touch the bottom

Yes, Northof50 Thats what I was referring to. The small eels bury themselves in the mud and can be dug up like worms in the summer. Here we use chunks of adult eel on trotlines under ice in winter for burbot.

Well, I finally give up. I never did see the picture of 112 burbot.