Fishing Forum

Went up to the Gorge last night (1/30) for a first try at burbot. We arrived at 1:00 p.m. at a cove on the west side across the lake from Marsh Creek and found 7" of ice. It looked soft but it was fine. We drilled about 3 dozen holes for three of us from 12' to 50'. It took awhile to get any fish but I finally got a small 20" mack on a Demon and waxworm.
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Then my friend Bob hooked and lost what we thought was a bit bigger mack.

Then my son got a nice 20.5" porker rainbow with a worm hook and leader sticking out its rear end.
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At 5:00 p.m. I moved shallow and set up two rods in 12 and 15' (I didn't want to mess with more than two rods). At 5:15 I iced the first burbot. The best bight was between 6:00-7:00p.m. but it never seemed real fast. We left at 9:00 p.m. with 1 mack, 1 rainbow and 20 burbot measuring from 9" to 25".
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We felt like we did pretty good for just having info from this site to go on. We were all by our selves but we could hear another group with a power auger in the next cove to the south of us drilling tons of holes. Temps were nice, 35ish during the day and 15-20 at night and 0-3 mph wind. Couldn't have been nicer.

Observation: Burbot are the stinkiest, slimiest and toughest fish to fillet I've ever dealt with. But they were interesting to be sure. I hope they are as good as everyone says they are.
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Great report - did you catch the Burbot on glow jigs tipped with meat?

Any idea how far south the safe ice extends?

Thanks.
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Nice catch and report... thanks for the pics, gotta love that. I would agree with your burbot assessment, although once I gave up on the rib meat the filleting was much easier....

I didn't care for them as much boiled as others seem to, fish n chips style was my fav and quite tastey....
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nice job. it aint tuff is it. you cant let them frezz or thay are a pain to skin and filet. i have a bucket with holes in the bottom so all the nasty runs out and i keep it in my shack so thay dont frezz , be sure to bleed them to, cut there tails off or rip out there gils helps the meat a ton great report and good job.ash
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[] Right on !!! Good to hear someones chasin da burbs these days..Now if only more people would get into it ... Very good results on your 1st burb trip ..more you go the more youll know..Fish on..FISHAMANIAC..[]
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Yup. Pretty standard stuff. Glow curly jig and glow curly-tail tipped with sucker or carp and laced with craw Smelly Jelly. We did catch a few on jigs that weren't glowing any more though. I got tired of recharging them all the time so I just let the glow die. I will say that the brighter the glow the faster the bite usually.

As far as the ice goes, we didn't check any ice further south than we fished but there was ice north of Lucerne bay in every pocket and cove we saw from the road. We only checked the ice in the coves about two miles south of Holms Crossing (Squaw Hollow). After sun down it was popping like crazy so it's getting thicker at least at night.
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Well I got the first part figured out but sounds llike I blew the second part. They froze and I didn't bleed them. I still haven't cleaned out the bucket. If it weren't such a nice bucket I'd throw it away. I only filleted the first one from the gills down then decided it was pointless so the rest were tail meat only, a much better deal. Filleting trout, bass and panfish are tons easier though.
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We were out Friday night also. Five of us put the hurt on about 40 burbs. You guys got some nice fish. Everything for us was justs as you said it was for you. Same times, etc.


Riley
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I have found it easier to let the bots freeze and then thaw a little before you put the blade to them. The key is to freeze them straight, don't let them curl. Then you can cut down each side of the dorsal fin and make one cut down the middle of the belly and cut around the head. Get the needle nose pliers and pull off the skin. Then cut down both sides basically cutting the meat right off and then cutting out the ribs..... anyway that is the best way for me to get the job done.... just thought you might want to try it...
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[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Good job for the first time. You probably would have caught alot more had you stayed up later.[/#000000][/font]
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Thanks for the hints. I'll have to remember all this for the next time, whenever that is. Maybe one day when I get a shelter I'll stay out longer but I've never been real excited about night fishing especially on ice.
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you need to try them fresh you will see how easy thay are to do .dont waste that rib meat its easy to get off and there is a lot more than most say or think there is. i wish thay would have keept it the same as any other game fish and if you waste em you get a ticket and go home and dont waste a good peace of meat that some one in tuff times such as now could really use if you cant figure out how to take care of them call the game and fish and donate them to a good thing instead of a house cat.iam not sayin you guys just any one that may not want them or dont care to clean them the reason i wish thay would have left it a game fish is i found a pile of around 30+ at anvil some one had just thrown on the boat ramp it would have feed my family for a few good meals just my 2 cents my fisrt few were a joke i had stuff flyin all over but thay are easy to clean ash
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