ABC's of Fishing For Burbs

[HunterDave]

I've never fished for burbs but I'm keen to fish for them. The weather is supposed to be nice so I decided to head to Lac Sante on Friday to give it a burst. I've been checking the forum and youtube to get an idea of what the best methods are to use in order to increase my chances of a successful trip.

I'm looking for tips on hook setup, bait, water depth, keeper size........basically everything. Any and all tips from you experienced fellas would be appreciated. Cheers! :)

[BeeGuy]

If they are around and moving, I like big herring chunks on a big octopus hook for the tip up.

Otherwise a white jig with a stinger treble and smelt.

[HunterDave]

Thanks BG. I did a google search and it worked better than the search feature on this forum for providing me with links to AO threads. This must be the gazillionth thread looking for info on how to catch burbs. I think that I know enough to be dangerous now. :)

https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=+site:outdoorsmenforum.ca+ice+fishing+burbot&sa=X&ei=9eAuUej5C6e9igKmi4DwAw&ved=0CE8QrQIwAw&biw=1366&bih=667

[BeeGuy]

I'm going for burbs tomorrow evening and I'll be using these techniques.

It's a new lake, so we'll see how she goes.

Right spot at the right time and there isn't much technique needed.


I'm going to run a couple glass beads above my rig to get their attention when Im jigging.

[DiehardFishingMan]

burbs is meat eater, they take almost anything. Most of the time they are bottom feeder and come out after sunset. But the mating season would be exceptional they eat during day time and can be in the middle of the waters.

If it is not mating time, I will go late in the afternoon and stay till 10 or 11PM. I use all kind of meat to attract them, and the best one is the pork liver.

Next couple weeks will be there mating season, and they take almost everything. I will use bell hook or Wetaskiwin Special Lure bouncing from the bottom to catch them

[HunterDave]

From the reading that I've done burbs are not very fussy as long as they can find your bait. They sound a lot like the catfish and eels that I'd catch at night when I was a kid out east. I'm going to plan on fishing them in the afternoon and into the evening and see how I do. Something new and different is always fun. :)

[chriscosta]

dude my uncle lives at lac sante and the spawning grounds are a hundred feet off shore around the boat launch find 25 feet or look for a bunch of holes its on the same side as the camp if ya need directions pm me theres a crapload of burbs there we usually get allotta fish and some of descent size

[bisonhunter]

I put a strip of ciscoe meat on a 1/2 oz jig and pound the bottom every 5-10 seconds. The more silt and noise you make the easier it is for them to find it seams. I've had great success (5-6 an hour) using this technique.
I'm sure other types of smelts/minnows/meats would work also, they are very aggressive hunters.

[waterninja]

a fellow member yeehah and my self are planning on trying our luck today for burbs. not asking for much, just a 38".

[Freedom55]

The only burbot I ever caught was 6.98lb, taken while aggressively jigging a 5" gold/silver Williams Wobbler "whitefish". Took 9th at a derby, won a portable sonar.

Not a typical technique, but I was desperate, and it worked. Made it the weigh station with a minute to spare.

Free

[marlin1]

minnows work best for me , last year at Gull a little green propeller jig was slaying them for me as well . Going to hit crawling tomorrow and hopefully we'll get one or two

[Warmbreeze]

I want to look for some at Calling. Was thinking in about 4 to 12 fow (or should I try deeper). But I am wondering, would it be better to find them on sand bottom or rock bottom areas?

[tysonlazo2]

At Sainte bring lots of tubs of minnows and five of diamond spoons and just watch ull catch tons we event threw 4 tubs of minnows Sunday out there

[HunterDave]

At Sainte bring lots of tubs of minnows and five of diamond spoons and just watch ull catch tons we event threw 4 tubs of minnows Sunday out there

Well, I hope that it's that good out there tomorrow....lol! I only bought one tub of minnows and I have a 3/4 tub of worms left from trout fishing that I can make worm balls from. If I run out with that then the fishing was great! :)

What size of burbs should I be keeping for eaters?

[pikeslayer22]

Hey Dave a couple of my friends use bacon they say it works great and stays on forever.

[The Fisherman Guy]

Dave, you are in for some fun!

Sight fishing burbs is a great way to see what they like and don't like. From my experiences, they seem to like heavy noise, flash and bottom disturbances. During the spawn, we find that if you pound a big spoon or swim bait on bottom and stir up the silt, they come in fast and furious.

Smelt, Minnows, or any stinky bait usually works. I have caught burbs at night, on gummy worms, bare jig heads, spoons, almost anything. The trick is to find where they are, then catching them is easy.

Try a 3/8oz jig head, with a stinger hook. Tear a rubber tail in half so that the body is discarded, but you have the tail with a small amount of body left. Run the tail up to the head of the jig, this leaves plenty of room for your bait to fit on the hook.

Drop it to bottom, and pound bottom with it aggressively. Then lift it up and pause for about 5 seconds. The strike looks like a slow tug, not a rapid tap-tap-tap. Set the hook and haul em up!

Ling have large livers, so the mercury buildup is stored there and not in their fat. I find that the 3+ pound fish have a good amount of meat on them.

As for cleaning them; Don't gut them. Skin them.

Run your knife around the head, behind the pectoral fins - just through the skin. Make sure you create a "ring" cut all the way around the head. Then, with a pair of pliers, grab the upper lip. Use another pair of pliers to grab a hold of the skin on the back and steadily pull toward the tail. It takes a bit to get started, then it comes off just like a sock.

To fillet them, run your knife down the back toward the tail, stopping at where the belly ends. (You will see a seam between the "backstraps", there's no bones in there, so you can run your blade down to the rib cage.)
Once you have cut back to where the anus is, stick your knife through the back to the bottom of the fish - like you would any other fish. Follow the spine to the tail. Then, you can cut the back strap down to about halfway to the belly.

What you end up with is a thick, roundish piece of backstrap meat, and a thin tail slab.

If the meat is fresh, pinch the meat once it's off the carcass. It will twitch in your fingers to let you know it is really fresh!!!

Fry it up like you would cod. It's deeeeelish!

Have fun Dave!!

[Athabasca]

Well, I hope that it's that good out there tomorrow....lol! I only bought one tub of minnows and I have a 3/4 tub of worms left from trout fishing that I can make worm balls from. If I run out with that then the fishing was great! :)

What size of burbs should I be keeping for eaters?

Check the regs, most lakes in the Parkland area is now catch and release for the Burbs. PP2

[HunterDave]

Check the regs, most lakes in the Parkland area is now catch and release for the Burbs. PP2

Thanks for the reminder. I'm fishing Lac Sante in NB1 so I'm good to go with a 10 burb limit.

[HunterDave]

That was a great post The Fisherman Guy! Thank you and thank you everyone else that offered comments and advice. :)

Here are the rigs that I decided to start with tomorrow. I'm going to jig a 1/4 oz bucktail that I put a treble hook trailer on and I'll dead stick a #2 snelled hook with a couple of #5 split shots above. I also have 1/4 oz glow jigs to give a burst with as well. I'm using 2" shiners for bait. I'M GOOD TO GO! :sHa_shakeshout:

http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx79/lifetimepassion/Picture89_zps618372f9.jpg

[BeeGuy]

Just back from burbing a new lake.

We got 1 between the 3 of us in a couple hours fishin.

smelt on a jig head with a stinger just off the bottom was the ticket.

the one and only burb bite of the night.

it was a 3lb, ~26'' male.

spawned out which was surprising.

Will have to try a bit earlier next year.

[HunterDave]

it was a 3lb, ~26'' male.

Nice! Thanks for the update. I'm not going until after lunch and I figure on having a line in the water about 2ish. I plan on staying for awhile after dark. I'm pretty excited to try fishing burbs for the first time. You just know that there'll be a picture on the forum if I'm fortunate enough to catch something. :)

[HunterDave]

A huge thank you to all of you guys that provided me with info about fishing burbs. Today was better than I could have hoped for! :sHa_shakeshout:

A special thanks to pikeslayer22 for all of the help that he offerred me via PM, the guy at WSS that set me up with the right jigs and minnows and The Fisherman Guy that took the time to type out that detailed post!

I was out there from about 4:30 til 8:30. I hooked my first ever burb about 5 minutes later and it was a steady 5 or 6 burbs per hour. I finished cleaning my 10 burb limit at about midnight. What a great day!

Red 1/4 oz jig with a yellow bucktail worked great until dark then there was a lull so I switched to 1/4 oz glow jig and they started hitting again. I baited the jigs with 2" shiner minnows. Everything worked awesome! :)

[Double-Eh]

Thi is a great thread for a rookie like me. Nice work everyone! And especially to HD for his first many burbs. I hope to snag on to mine soon as well.

All I need is an Edmonton area lake where they're known to hang out and a time of day. Or is this time of year a free for all throughout the whole day?

I'm headed to Mons with the last for some perch, but any pms for a good burb spot would be very appreciated.

[HunterDave]

Here's a picture of the two biggest burbs that I caught yesterday. Of the 10 that I kept there were only a couple that were probably a bit smaller than I should have kept. I put plenty back in but now that I've cleaned 10 of them I know exactly how big I want to keep. Getting fussy already.....lol. :)

http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx79/lifetimepassion/009_zps98608972.jpg

[HunterDave]

All I need is an Edmonton area lake where they're known to hang out and a time of day. Or is this time of year a free for all throughout the whole day?

There are lakes closer that have burbs but I can't imagine them being better than the fishing that I did at Lac Sante. I went in the late afternoon because I knew that they are mainly nocturnal feeders but I caught quite a few before the sun set. I'm pretty sure that you could catch them all day long for the next few weeks but hopefully someone with more experience will chime in for you. GL. :)

[waterninja]

it is a little disappointing at how little usable meat you get off those burbs. congrats on your catch.

[chriscosta]

Thats sweet dude my uncle will be glad to hear about it he lives a short walk from the launch. Yet he never fishes there anyway congrats man i might drop in next weekend if i do ill report my results

[pikeslayer22]

Hey Dave how did the burbs taste?

[HunterDave]

Hey Dave how did the burbs taste?

I had some for supper tonight and they were awesome!!!! :sHa_shakeshout: There's no strong fish smell when you're cooking them and they have a nice mild flavour. I fried them in butter and experimented a bit with different spice combinations. I found that I like salt and lemon pepper the best, the citrus taste really complimented the mild fish flavour nicely. I have enough for another feed this week and when that's gone and the weather is nice, I'm headed back out there for sure! :)

Thanks a ton for helping me out, I really appreciate it! :happy0034:

[pikeslayer22]

No worries, glad to here about the good eats!

[chriscosta]

Im supposed to go visit my aunt n uncle this sunday rumour has it plus eight if im privelaged enough to make it maybe ill have some luck as well

[Double-Eh]

Anyone want to reveal a spot or general area to probe for burbot at Sante? PMs are welcome.

[davegrant]

Anyone want to reveal a spot or general area to probe for burbot at Sante? PMs are welcome.

From boat launch 30 steps straight 40 steps to right then 15 steps to left.
It's the hole with blood around it.

C'mon man. You have the lake have the proper rig How about finding a spot yourself so at least you can say it's your spot and save some credibility.
:snapoutofit:

[HunterDave]

From boat launch 30 steps straight 40 steps to right then 15 steps to left.
It's the hole with blood around it.

Yeah, pretty much right there AlbertoA. You'll see the old holes drilled. :sign0111:

[jeffrey929]

How thick is the ice?? Is it still ok to drive on?? Never been to Lac Sante nor caught and landed a Burbot... Would really like to

[waterninja]

How thick is the ice?? Is it still ok to drive on?? Never been to Lac Sante nor caught and landed a Burbot... Would really like to
ice is almost 3 feet thick but i do wonder about the enormous number of holes being drilled in such a small area. gonna look like swiss cheese soon.

[jeffrey929]

Thanks... sounds good... or bad :)

[BeeGuy]

My basketball team and I are renting a coach and heading up to Sante this weekend and bringing all our kids. Hope the 34 of us can all take a limit home.

How's the fishing been?

Still biting?

[HunterDave]

My basketball team and I are renting a coach and heading up to Sante this weekend and bringing all our kids. Hope the 34 of us can all take a limit home.

How's the fishing been?

Still biting?

Yeah, they're really hitting on bubble gum right now.......bring lots. :)

[BeeGuy]

Double bubble or something minty?

[waterninja]

Double bubble or something minty?
i always go with double bubble. the pink color is a great attractent and you can read the comics during slow times.

[pikeslayer22]

My basketball team and I are renting a coach and heading up to Sante this weekend and bringing all our kids. Hope the 34 of us can all take a limit home.

How's the fishing been?

Still biting?
Your Basketball team has nothing on the resident Mennonite's... 8 kids each and fish there every day!