I got a call yesterday evening from a couple of the guides up in Craig who wanted to do a little night fishing for ling cod. For you folks in the Mid-West; eelpout, lawyer or burbot and for the snooty ones, poor man's lobster. The actual name for the fish is burbot but it is very closely related to ling cod--only a smaller fresh water version.
I've heard of people fishing for them in the Missouri and I've heard they are very delicious. Back home, we often caught them ice-fishing for walleye and since they were so wicked looking and wrapped themselves around your arm when pulling them out of your hole, they usually found their way out on the ice and were left for the crows. I've never seen one come out of the Missouri so I always kind of thought they were more myth than anything.
So last night I dug my spinning rod out of the snow-bank and re-rigged my Lindy Rig with a 1/4 ounce slip sinker and a #2 Eagle Claw and headed down to the dam. Jarrid and the rest of the crew were down there with bait--a dead sucker--and already had a fire going and rods in the water. I picked a spot in the slack water next to the campgrounds where I wouldn't cross anybody's line and threaded a piece of sucker meat on my hook and chucked it out there. I gave us about a 10% chance of actually catching one; I was there for the company and an excuse to drink beer.
About an hour into it, somewhere around 8pm, I caught the first fish for our group. It was about a 17 inch rainbow that had obviously spilled down over the dam and since it had swallowed the hook, we whacked it. I caught another one about two hours later and then it got hot. We got a whitefish, another trout and then Jarrid pulled out about a two-foot walleye. (We've already talked about walleye's in the Lower Missouri--we whacked it.)
Within a minute or two, I looked over at my rod sticking up out of the snow just down the beach. It was bent over a little with a steady pull. It wasn't jerking like a trout but just kind of steady pressure. I ran over and picked it up and dropped the tip to give it a little slack. With walleyes, you had to give 'em a little time to eat it so I figured if it was a burbot, it would eat similarly. I reeled in some slack and when I felt a little tug I tugged back--hard.
It actually put up a pretty good fight and I'm kind of glad I knew they were in there because something that slinky coming out of the water at night would have freaked me out otherwise. I pulled it up on the beach and we all whooped it up; probably a little surprised we actually caught one. I caught another one a few minutes later and then we got another trout before the fire burned down and we headed out.
We'll hit it again tonight having a little more knowledge hoping to get a few more. Maybe we'll have a little burbot feed here sometime soon.
Keep 'em where they live...
I've heard of people fishing for them in the Missouri and I've heard they are very delicious. Back home, we often caught them ice-fishing for walleye and since they were so wicked looking and wrapped themselves around your arm when pulling them out of your hole, they usually found their way out on the ice and were left for the crows. I've never seen one come out of the Missouri so I always kind of thought they were more myth than anything.
So last night I dug my spinning rod out of the snow-bank and re-rigged my Lindy Rig with a 1/4 ounce slip sinker and a #2 Eagle Claw and headed down to the dam. Jarrid and the rest of the crew were down there with bait--a dead sucker--and already had a fire going and rods in the water. I picked a spot in the slack water next to the campgrounds where I wouldn't cross anybody's line and threaded a piece of sucker meat on my hook and chucked it out there. I gave us about a 10% chance of actually catching one; I was there for the company and an excuse to drink beer.
About an hour into it, somewhere around 8pm, I caught the first fish for our group. It was about a 17 inch rainbow that had obviously spilled down over the dam and since it had swallowed the hook, we whacked it. I caught another one about two hours later and then it got hot. We got a whitefish, another trout and then Jarrid pulled out about a two-foot walleye. (We've already talked about walleye's in the Lower Missouri--we whacked it.)
Within a minute or two, I looked over at my rod sticking up out of the snow just down the beach. It was bent over a little with a steady pull. It wasn't jerking like a trout but just kind of steady pressure. I ran over and picked it up and dropped the tip to give it a little slack. With walleyes, you had to give 'em a little time to eat it so I figured if it was a burbot, it would eat similarly. I reeled in some slack and when I felt a little tug I tugged back--hard.
It actually put up a pretty good fight and I'm kind of glad I knew they were in there because something that slinky coming out of the water at night would have freaked me out otherwise. I pulled it up on the beach and we all whooped it up; probably a little surprised we actually caught one. I caught another one a few minutes later and then we got another trout before the fire burned down and we headed out.
We'll hit it again tonight having a little more knowledge hoping to get a few more. Maybe we'll have a little burbot feed here sometime soon.
Keep 'em where they live...
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