Gull

[T-Bone]

How is the burbot fishing on gull? Whites? Perch? I'll be out Sunday,Hopefully catch a burbot.I would like to try one deep fried.I have never eaten one before.

[hockeyfish]

today i landed 1 burbot, and 2 others got away..

[FisherPotch]

Burbs are fantastic deep fried. The belly flap, tail meat, and back strap style fillets are all melt in your mouth fantastic. But I find that they realy dont have much meat on them tell they get into the 5lb range. Good luck! I caught an 8.5 pounder the other day on a glow genz worm tipped with eggs and gulp maggots. Most the time I find glow jigs with minnow work best but things have been slow so I went smaller and it worked out. Tight lines. Wasnt at gull though.

[fishunter77]

It is sad when I look back when I was a kid. I would fish Pigeon for whites with my Dad and would come in early in the morning only to see 20 burbots laying on the ice rotting from 1 or 2 days before.

What a waste. I am glad to see more people are targeting them as a sport fish and now see them being released for someone else to enjoy!:)

[FisherPotch]

It is a shame when people disrespect one of gods creatures.

Gull has decent numbers of burbs from my understanding. Hope you hammer a few gooders t-bone.

[T-Bone]

Thanks Fisher
I think all fish are good. properly prepared. I tried to smoke a burbot a few years back and it kind of sucked but I heard they are good boiled or deep fried so I am on a quest to try them on a new recipe. How do you eat them???

[slingshotz]

Burbot are the only freshwater members of the cod family. Treat them just like you would with cod or any other firm flaky flesh. The belly flap can be a bit annoying as it's thinner and has a tendancy to curl up due to the inner membrane. You can remove the inner membrane but it's finicky, but if you do a deep fried batter style preparation you won't notice the membrane.

I hate wasting any food, so I'll fillet all the meat off them, save the liver (very tasty and can make up 10% of the body weight), keep the roe for bait (still experimenting with borax recipes), use the carcass and head for fish stock/soup and finally the best part, the cheek meat, just like a little scallop.

If it's your thing, you can also boil the heads and skeleton of pike and other fish to make a version of fish head cheese from the little pieces of fish meat and natural gelatin (kinda like jellied eels).

[FisherPotch]

I deep fry mine in a flour lemon peper batter. I removed the membrane from the belly flap as slingshotz mentioned. Its not too too tough to remove. Skykomish sunrise is big on boiling them fillets in sal****er and smoothering in butter. I prefer fried though. The cheeks are awsome as slingshotz stated as well. I was at a local resturant called the atlantic kitchen and they have cod tounges sometimes. I'm interested in weather the burbs have a tasty toungues too. Anyone know?

I'll be searching for the liver next time.

Good luck on gull t-bone, hope you slay some burbosity!! Let us know how it goes.

[solocam3]

Burbot are known as "Poor Mans Lobster" One way to clean is to nail their jaw to a tree, make an incision all the way around the body just behind the gills, then grab the skin on both sides of the fish with two sets of pliers, and pull the skin off by pulling straight down. Cut the meat into cubes and boil, and serve with melted butter. Give it a try, you will be surprised how good it tastes.

[FisherPotch]

So T-bone? Fortunate enough to be filling your face with some burbosity currently?

[slingshotz]

I deep fry mine in a flour lemon peper batter. I removed the membrane from the belly flap as slingshotz mentioned. Its not too too tough to remove. Skykomish sunrise is big on boiling them fillets in sal****er and smoothering in butter. I prefer fried though. The cheeks are awsome as slingshotz stated as well. I was at a local resturant called the atlantic kitchen and they have cod tounges sometimes. I'm interested in weather the burbs have a tasty toungues too. Anyone know?

I'll be searching for the liver next time.

Good luck on gull t-bone, hope you slay some burbosity!! Let us know how it goes.

Yes the tongues are pretty tasty but a bit chewy unless they are cooked for a longer period of time, its more jelly like. Don't look at me, the maritimers came up with the idea to eat tongues first I think :lol:

And Bud, there's a good chance that your ancestors (assuming you're not oriental heh) ate the livers before the Chinese ever did :) I know they were a delicacy all over Europe, to the point that they got fished to near extinction in England (hopefully that doesn't ever happen here) and very rare now in places like Russia and Eastern Europe. Same goes for the roe but I haven't been able to salt the roe to my liking, last time I tried a 5% salt recipe recommended by someone here it was a little too salty and I haven't been able to get another burb with roe since.

I never knew you could eat the livers until last year and was very skeptical until I tried it. It's like globs of tasty melt in your mouth fish fat. I know to some that probably would be revolting, so to each their own, I might be weird that way as I love all fats, bacon, beef, etc, thank god my metabolism is high or I'd weigh 400 pounds.

[jrs]

"I hate wasting any food, so I'll fillet all the meat off them, save the liver (very tasty and can make up 10% of the body weight), keep the roe for bait (still experimenting with borax recipes), use the carcass and head for fish stock/soup and finally the best part, the cheek meat, just like a little scallop.

If it's your thing, you can also boil the heads and skeleton of pike and other fish to make a version of fish head cheese from the little pieces of fish meat and natural gelatin (kinda like jellied eels)."

Well glad to hear you're using as much of the fish as you can...but......the coyotes are usually howling when i head home from burbot fishing, they need something to eat as well, burbot eggs give them a nice shiny coat :) I occasionally boil up all the y-bone strips/ spine/ trim and make chowder but that's the first time I've heard of anyone making head cheese or eating the liver (aside from some interesting herbal remedy type deals). And i got funny looks when keeping the liver and hearts from the deer i shoot :lol:

[T-Bone]

Was out Sunday on the S.E. part of the lake. Had the camera down and my burbot bait down. Nothing, Tried jigging for perch, pike. Nothing very slow day.Drilled a few holes in 20' 15' close to shore, far from shore Nothing..... Very frustrating. Oh well I guess thats the way she goes some days.