Good weekend for cusk

[Kourcha]

Took a day off work to get out for 3 days to target cusk had a great time, The cusk bite was on fire hit the ol honey hole and caught roughly about 60 cusk almost all good eating size kept about 30 between me and my Buddy, All the discards going into the garden, Anyone who enjoys cusk as much as I, Now is the time to go get em!

[Wallace3716]

Nice job, probably good for the population to cull out some of those smaller ones.

What’s the go to recipe for those? Chowder or something else? I’ve enjoyed saltwater ones but never tried fresh.

[Sherpa]

Dumb question but what’s the min size you keep for cusk. I don’t think the state has a min size I’m asking about how big do they have to be to be worth the while to get enough meat off them. I rented a place at the Birches and it was non stop after it got dark but they were small. I increased my bait size until I stopped catch the small ones in hope of something big enough to be worth it.

[darby74]

Nice job, probably good for the population to cull out some of those smaller ones.

What’s the go to recipe for those? Chowder or something else? I’ve enjoyed saltwater ones but never tried fresh.

Great in chowder,  always been a fan of dipping in egg wash, rolling in seasoned flour (Slap Yo Mama is great) and fring in oil.  Never been a huge fan of poaching and dipping in butter.  Cusk is one of the few fish you can filet both sides together and get all the belly meat.  When you skin, it should look like a pair of chaps

[woodchip]

Lakes like Sabbatus where they put a limit on white perch was a very bad move. Sabattus has the highest mercury content in fish of other lakes making these fish even more dangerous to eat??This lake down the road will be a  very contaminatied !!

[nbourque]

Lakes like Sabbatus where they put a limit on white perch was a very bad move. Sabattus has the highest mercury content in fish of other lakes making these fish even more dangerous to eat??This lake down the road will be a  very contaminatied !!

Yo woody let’s stay on topic lol

[woodchip]

 nbourque
               You sound like a state offical and don't want to address the important facts .

[Fishin_Addiction]

A group of us did pretty well for cusk this past Saturday. We were fishing over on the west side of Kineo. We did the egg, flour seasoning and fried in peanut oil. My favorite fish to eat out of the lake. Make some homemade tartar sauce and you can’t beat it. I would say maybe 12” or larger would be good depending on how many people you are feeding or if you are going to freeze some.

[nbourque]

A group of us did pretty well for cusk this past Saturday. We were fishing over on the west side of Kineo. We did the egg, flour seasoning and fried in peanut oil. My favorite fish to eat out of the lake. Make some homemade tartar sauce and you can’t beat it. I would say maybe 12” or larger would be good depending on how many people you are feeding or if you are going to freeze some.

Taste similar to cod?

[Fishin_Addiction]

I think it tastes similar to haddock but even better.

[Kourcha]

Dumb question but what’s the min size you keep for cusk. I don’t think the state has a min size I’m asking about how big do they have to be to be worth the while to get enough meat off them. I rented a place at the Birches and it was non stop after it got dark but they were small. I increased my bait size until I stopped catch the small ones in hope of something big enough to be worth it.

essentially I will keep if it looks like it will filet easily enough cusk imo are not that hard to clean up and you get a good amount of meat off some of the smaller ones, go to method would be either chowder or cusk nuggets most of those fish will become chowder than 1/3 will be battered and fried I also found that using crawfish for bait I tend to catch bigger ones but not scientific proof by any means up your jig size and if you can't find crawfish I will fry the first decent one of the night and most the time find fresh craws in the stomach

[woodchip]

BAIT FOR cUSK A CHUNK OF MEAT OFF A CHUB OF SUCKER ALWAYS WORKED BEST FOR ME.

[Wallace3716]

So my burning question after reading this thread, why do people not get excited about eating more cusk? Every one on this thread seems to like them. I am guessing that it has to do with either 1) their overall appearance isn't as palatable and 2) you have to fish at night to catch them. Or are we just all fishermen and we know better? 

[Kourcha]

So my burning question after reading this thread, why do people not get excited about eating more cusk? Every one on this thread seems to like them. I am guessing that it has to do with either 1) their overall appearance isn't as palatable and 2) you have to fish at night to catch them. Or are we just all fishermen and we know better? 

I dont have a clue as to why people don't get more excited about not only eating them but fishing for them at night, I usually set little traps and do mostly jigging when targeting cusk, I find I get on alot more that way especially once you narrow down a good spot around where the majority of the cusk seem to hang around, We spent 3 nights and 2 days camping on the ice and during the daytime targeted more salmon and trout but once the night time came around it was all action with the cusk made for a real fun trip

[woodchip]

This month cusk are spawning and i catch them in day time,