Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Ice fishing is on in MN!

Spent the am trying to find a deer. No joy, but we did see 8 darkhouses on lake Winnie. Also saw TONS of traffic headed for Red lake or lake of the woods. Had a friend that caught a limit on Red Lake yesterday in 7 ft of water - 8" of ice.

SO, the quest for red meat became a quest for white meat. Not for me, I fell asleep on the couch. My friend showed up while I was snoozing and didn't go in front of my place like we had discussed, so I didn't know he was out. DAMM! He and his son went out a bit after 3pm and came back a bit before 6 with 2 nice walleyes, and 2 perch. Lost a few more walleyes. His 9 yr old son was trying to spear northerns. He threw the spear at 7 fish without luck.

the early bite is on - go get 'em!

Hard water fishing? Bring it on!

It is on!

[img:left]https://plus.google.com/photos/1171...85095234556319457?authkey=CJSuwbK387eXVA[/img]

And the 3# is the first pike speared by friend Pat's 11 yr old son!

Not the quantity from yesterday, but we can't knock the quality!

Just wish they were as pretty as the char. .

Good enough, what is bait, and method?

These were taken on a chartreuse glo spoon with a shiner minnow. They came in hot and inhaled the rig.

Didn't get out today - too windy and need to re-rig some reels from 2# line to something a bit more substantial!

What line do you change to?

Actually, I changed reels. Went to 8# powerpro with 6# flourocarbon leader. Didn't do any good though - 4-wheeler died in the driveway on the way out to fish tonite. Will try tomorrow. .

That sounds like the story of my life.

Boat fishing, either it is raining, or the outboard will not start.

Is the third fish in your picture a burbot Forpest?

I'm going to head east of here later in the winter to catch some burbot, gotta wait until we have mor daylight and enough snow to run my bearcat on so I can get to some of the more remote lakes. Love eating those slimy guys. I tell friends back home they are like a catfish and an eel had a baby when I describe them.

#3 be a walleye, a damn nice one too!

Kid:

How do you deal with burbot in terms of preparation for the table? I have never eaten one, but occasionally catch one. What am I missing?

Forpest

Skin them like a catfish then filet behind the ribs.

Batter and fry for good eating clean tasting white fish.

But the real treat is when you make poor man's lobster with them. Chunk the filets then boil until they are barely done in a quart saucepan with 2 tablespoons of white sugar dissolved in the water. While the chunks are still hot dip them in drawn butter and consume. Taste and texture surprisingly close to lobster and if it was a big burb there's a lot more eating there than a lobster.

When it warms up, I'll give it a try! Thanks!

I cleaned one last friday evening and included it with our fish fry on Lake of the woods MN.

Cut a ring around the body, just through the skin and behind the head. Use a pliers to pull the skin off like a tube sock. for mine the wind was blowing and it was below zero, hands were freezing fast and the fish was freezing as I was cleaning. So I kind of did a sloppy job, but I still got a lot of meat.

Once you get that skin pulled almost all the way off you can go back up front and start behind the head, cut just like you are taking back straps out of an animal for the rib cage portion, start from the front, cut down from just left or right from center, down to the rib bones, you will feel them with the knife. When you get the length of the rib cage cut down to the ribs then start at the front and follow the ribs out, filleting the backstraps free from the rib cage. behind the rib cage there is more meat, more of a fillet, it's easy. You will end up with a nice long cut of fresh water cod off both sides. one half of the cut is more of a cord shape (back strap) that tapers into a flat fillet cut for the tail section.

There's no bones, it's a gross job because it's a gross fish. but hey, people eat the legs off a nasty ass frog so, why not eat a pout?

I soak the meat on cold salted water, after a while I dump the water and do a final rinse before cooking.

Like the kid says, boiling is quite popular. I had a fish fry going so I fried this one. Dry shake on breading that I made with flour, instant potato flakes and a few seasonings.

The girls wanted nothing to do with it so us boys had it to ourselves. We melted a stick of butter for dipping.

It was awesome.

I didn't take any pics cleaning the pout, but I took this picture of it soaking in a zip bag to lure a buddy across the lake for a fish fry.

Yep, exactly how we do 'em up here too.

The lake we fish, you always seem to get a couple, right on last light.

Poor man's lobster, method, for us !

Anyone eat dogfish? I haven't ventured there yet. .