eating

[peple of the perch]

Are eelpout good to eat and has anyone caught one in Ohio?

[Germ]

Taste good yes ohio i dont know call your local Misistry of natural resourses and ask them they have knowledge of fish in the area sorry i couldnt help more!

[grumpymoe]

hardest part is putting that first forkfull into your mouth

[Chris Raymond]

Burbot is extremely good.  Even though I've been fishing since I've been a little tyke, I've never fished for or caught a burbut...until Wednesday night when I thought I'd give it a try.  I caught thirteen (keeping just seven) in about an hour and a half.  Ate them for the first time last night and I'm absolutely shocked that I haven't heard more about this fish and that some consider them junk.  While I may have been extremely lucky, it didn't seem like it took much to catch them...absolutely no technique (tip-ups and deadsticking dead minnows within inches of the bottom).  They didn't seem to fight all that much and there wasn't much meat for the size of the fish but it was well worth the effort.  I'll be back on the slab tonight, Sunday, and most of next week.  This is a very overlooked and underrated fish. 

[Germ]

Music to GErm's ears let me tell ya...I agree getting the meat off is well worth it and yes i wish there was more meat on the buggers as i've never caught one over 3 pounds...Iv'e only been fishing em the last couple of years. ANyhow i wish i could catch some nice 5-8 pounds as im sure like any other fish that would be a good range for one to eat. Tigt lines and bring in the Ling stories!

[buzzbomb]

Once you get the hang of skinning and filleting them you'll get a little more meat off them.. I recommend getting a pair of skinning pliers.they've got curved jaws that won't slip off. The  way they twitch when you're filleting them can be disconcerting.  One man here said to my friend "Ralph, I like to eat them and I don't mind cleaning them...if you'd only tell me how to kill them!"

[fishermanjake]

I hang them on the dumpster by the mouth.  Its in the parking lot so i get alot of looks, pictures sometimes, most people think its cool.  Then i slice their skin right below the gills and pectoral fins, take a pliers and pull the skin off.  The i take the pliers to the back of the dorsal and anal fin and they pull right off real nice and give you a nice groove to start filleting them on.  then i fillet them.  I showed that to my buddy and he said "God really made them easy to clean".  I couldn't agree more.

[grumpymoe]

some anglers let them get slightly stiff but not frozen. then slice and pull the skin off with pliers just like you clean catfish. them meat comes off easily and no slime. fishermanjake's got the cool idea.

[Germ]

Well mine i nail to a tree or some guys up here have eelpout cleaning  set ups on the back of their huts with hanging posts or nailing posts And then do it the way Jake suggests!

[Germ]

Now after reading this..again i find that you do it a bit differnt..So you actually just remove the Layers of skin off away from the meat leaving the meat there to remove after? If thats the way ill try that i have been just doing the same with cutting but leaving the skin and meat together only to remove the skin after i have already take the meat away from the Carcass..ANyhow ya if thats what you mean then please repost as i think your way might be easier...Or just come over to Ontario and Do it for me lol..Tight lines
!

[grumpymoe]

GERM skinning is a good way to clean burbot, but any way that works for you is ok too.  just top them with some porpcorn after they're cooked up.  grumpy

[Germ]

Just pick up the fish skiing boards that have the clamp on the front..It holds the head there while u do the rest ..This way you can pull the SKin off like he says. It came off like a Sock,,,Had myself a Lil ling puppet put your hand inside and do a puppet show afterwards..SIck...ANy how ya now got the meat sitting in a bowl in the fridge. ANyhow tight lines all!

[Ice Troll]

Take those strips that come off the fishes back area and cut it into 1 inch chunks. Boil some water seasoned with a little lemon. Drop the chunks of fish into the boiling water and when they float, they are done. It doesnt take very long. Two minutes or less I would say. While boiling the Ling chunks, melt a stick of butter(not margarine) and pour it into a bowel. Scoop the boiled Ling out of the water and spear them with a toothpick. Now dip the fish into the butter and enjoy. Poor mans lobster. Ling is probably one of the best eating fresh water fish if not the best.

Ice Troll

[Germ]

Hear hear for the ling...Ya you can't beat the ling on taste shoudl be a good eat this weekend...Hmm can't wait

[buzzbomb]

Okay, here's my 5 cents.  Try those skinning pliers, they're the #1 piece of kit for cleaning them.  And you don't need to nail them onto anything, just  slice them around behind the pec. fins, maybe making a little extra V right behingd the head so there's a piece of skin to grab with the pliers, and hold them down behind the head and pull with the other hand.  You can remove the fins as stated above, but If I'm just going to fillet them I don't bother because you've got to cut inside them a bit to miss catching the edge of the backbone anyway.  The front half I cut down inside from the backbone and then out inside the ribs, and the back half I lay flat and filet as you would any other fish.  The meat on the back half  often isn't as white as the front filets, and curls up in the frying pan, so sometimes I just chop them off the skinned fish, after removing the fin, and brine and smoke them.  The meat peels off the bones easily after smoking, and it's a good poor man's version of smoked cod.

[MeadowPikeman]

i too don't like the dark meat on the back fillets so tend to shy away from keeping burbot, perch turn out just as good bolied like lobster. although catching them is fun cause there so damn ugly. if you thnk they don't fight catch one over 10lbs on perch gear!!

[TGF]

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Lots of times I just remove the back strap above the mud-line and the tail piece, don't care for the little bit of belly meat. I dont skin them all just the backstrap and tail then remove meat.
I remove the mud-line on any fish I catch cause it tastes like crap. Just try cooking it up by itself after you have removed it. YUK.

[mountainmama]

Hear hear for the ling...Ya you can't beat the ling on taste shoudl be a good eat this weekend...Hmm can't wait

Tried our first ling last night. I caught a nice one on the weekend, Grump skinned it and I cooked it. I boiled it in water,wine and a dash of lime juice. Then dipped in garlic butter. YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!! It took years to  try it but so many of you have said how good they are we finally took the plunge and are very happy we did. Thanks .   mountainmama

[TGF]

Hear hear for the ling...Ya you can't beat the ling on taste shoudl be a good eat this weekend...Hmm can't wait

Tried our first ling last night. I caught a nice one on the weekend, Grump skinned it and I cooked it. I boiled it in water,wine and a dash of lime juice. Then dipped in garlic butter. YUMMMMMMMMM!!!!! It took years to  try it but so many of you have said how good they are we finally took the plunge and are very happy we did. Thanks .   mountainmama

Little bit of ling, some wine, romantic music............ and the shack is a rockin.
We do the same with lakers too.

[killitandgrillit]

I was fishing in the menominee river (michigan) a few years ago...it'd dammed up in a few places, this was above the third dam where the water is unpolluted. I saw this monster fish cruising around, so i caught me a little sunfish, tossed on a treble, tossed the sunfish in the river...and hauled out the biggest burbot ever. I didnt know what it was, I just let it go. It would have been PCB laden anyway. I have a pic around here somewhere. I'd put it at about 25 pounds, 4 feet. It would have been a state record in michigan and wisconsin- I was fishing border waters. I'm sure the fish was older than me- I didnt feel too bad about letting it go. I have enough MA patches.

[Whiskey]

That is a very cool story, , , please , , please find those picks. I'm sure we would all like to see picks of this MONSTER.

Whiskey