Annual Spring Burbot Trip

I was lucky enough to marry the best wife in the world! Ashton was 4 weeks old when this trip was planned and Danielle was totally cool letting me go for a three day weekend to try and bring some fish home for the fish fry. Every year we host a block fish fry of burbot and we were determined to make this year no different. The only thing different this year is that Danielle and Tundra didn't get to go :( It was just me and my buddy Kevin.

We ice fish for burbot on in many places but the easiest place to catch them (and land larger fish) is typically Crosswinds Lake. It's not a weekend fishing area. It's about a 3 hour drive there, and then a 25 mile snowmachine ride back. The ride doesn't take that long, but once you get there, setting everything up and tearing it down does.

We took off early on a Friday and got to the parking lot at sunrise. It ended up being a gorgeous and warm day (about 33-35 degrees and sunny). We packed up our gear and rode in quickly. Along the way, we came across a group of about 15 ptarmigan. I had my .22 rifle with me and was able to get out and put a stalk on them. Unfortunately, this 6'8" can't get too close to anything in the winter without being seen. They easily saw me walking towards them and immediately took off. We ended up seeing another group a little further in, but it was the same result.

I was surprised how fast we got to the end of the lake without having to go so slow for a dog running along side us! (Also, I always forget how rough that trail is until we get to the end of it. It is so rough that I seem to break and destroy something every time.)We rode around for a little bit to find a good camping spot. We decided to set up camp right on the lake near the shore. As we were setting up camp, a guy on a snowmachine and a grooming trailer came up beside us. He thought we were having trouble since our gear was thrown all over. We explained to him that we were setting up camp. He told us he was grooming the trail for a dog race in a couple weeks. We chatted for a good 20 minutes and then he went on his way.

After we finished setting up the tent, we shifted our attention to fishing. We went to drill the first hole and were having a hard time getting through the ice. It turns out we were through the ice and digging into the frozen ground and rock! Well that obviously dulled up our blade big time! The funny thing is, I had to convince Kevin the week prior to always have another blade on hand in case one is dulled. This was a CLASSIC told ya so moment. We ended up drilling 10 holes (you are allowed to fish five lines per person for burbot) and baited them. The interesting thing was, when I dropped my first line, it didn't hit the bottom. Confused, I pulled up on the line only to feel a fish tugging on the other end! He quickly let go of the bait at which point I dropped it back down. This exchange happened 3 more times before the fish finally decided to stop playing around and leave. I didn't land that fish.

As soon as I declared the fish a goner, Kevin actually landed a small lake trout on a line he was jigging in waiting for me to bait. I was shocked he actually caught a lake trout there because there was only one foot of water between the ice and the lake bottom. Regardless, we thought this was going to be a good couple days of fishing seeing that we had only been there a short while and already had some good action without even trying.

Little did we know that the fishing trip would be the total opposite. We didn't get a single bite the rest of the day... and we fished for about 8 hours! We set up our ice shanty in a couple different areas and could not find the fish at all! We would mark a few on the fish finder but nothing was hungry! (not catching much makes for an easier blog entry tho)

We fished into the darkness and gave up relatively early. This was the first night testing out the new Arctic Oven tent. The Arctic Oven is a four seasons tent that is stove compatible. It did not disappoint either! We had the stove on the lowest setting all night and slept extremely well. This was actually a test run for an upcoming Kodiak hunt as well. Test successful!

We woke up the next morning and found one of our tip ups tripped. This was a little disappointing because burbot are supposed to feed at night time, and typically more tip ups are tripped than that. Luckily, the fish stayed on and we landed a nice sized burbot.

This was our only full day of fishing we would have. Unfortunately, it was very similar to the day prior... alot of NOTHING! We tried many different places but could not find the fish anywhere. We ended up deciding to head back toward our tent and set up the shanty a little deeper than the last hole in our burbot bait line. As we were setting up our shanty, one of my flags tripped. We ran over there and set the hook. I knew it was a fairly large fish because it was pulling pretty hard. It didn't take long to pull it up and to our surprise, it was a monster Lake Trout. This isn't the fish we were hoping for. Any Lake Trout caught on a burbot setup has to be released immediately. We took a quick picture and threw it back.

The shanty didn't take long to get set up, which is a good thing because the sun was setting quickly. I'm not sure what changed, but the fish decided to bite that night. Within 10 minutes of fishing there, I hooked in to a large burbot. About a minute later, he spit my line out! I quickly rebaited and drop my line again. About 30 minutes later, I had another huge strike. However, this time my line snapped and the fish swam off with my bait!! I was frustrated that I missed two straight fish... Kevin was frustrated that he wasn't getting any fish love.

About an hour after tying my line and rebaiting, again, I had another huge strike. This time was different! I played the fish for about 10 minutes. We saw flashes of him and could tell it was a pretty big lake trout. I then started to move him in alignment with the ice hole. As I began to pull up, he kicked to the side and ended up pulling the hook out of his mouth! I lost my third fish in a row! Unfortunately, this particular type of situation happens all to often. Under the ice hole, the water is open, but if you pull the fish up the ice hole before it is ready and his head hits the under shelf of the ice as you are pulling the line up, the fish stops and the line continue to move = lost fish.

Well obviously I was a little upset, but I didn't give up hope yet. We decided to fish for one more hour and then call it a night. I'll give you one guess what happened next...

Another big fish nailed my bait. We were excited to break the curse this time. Again, I played it for a while and then made the move to pull it through the ice hole. Luckily I didn't bop its head this time, HOWEVER, history has a way of repeating itself. Somehow, the fish spit the hook when it is about 5 inches from the surface. Normally this isn't a big deal because the icehole is not big enough for a fish a fish to turn around and head downward after it's pointing up. NOT FOR THIS FISH. Somehow this fish broke its back, bent completely in half, healed its back, and then swam off! I was shocked! What the heck just happened. How did that happen? How can I hook in to so many fish and not land a single one of them? Why was I the only one hooking fish? All questions remain unanswered.

The next morning we awoke to another flag being tripped. This time it was Kevin's flag. He ran over to his tip up and pulled in the smallest burbot I have ever seen caught in that lake (still a good keeper size tho). At this point, we weren't being picky because we needed fish for the fish fry.

Shorty after landing the fish, I noticed some movement behind our tent. I looked a little closer and realized a grouse was hanging out and swallowing gravel. I quickly grabbed my .22 rifle and headed for the bird. It turns out, I forgot how to aim the darn rifle. It took 8 shots until I realized I was too close to the bird and I was over shooting. After I realized that, the bird had no chance. I was lucky tho that grouse are stupid and don't spoke very easy.

I quickly cleaned the grouse so we could fish for a couple hours before we packed up. We soon found out our luck hadn't changed. No bites at all. Discouraged, we tore down camp and all of our fishing gear and headed for the truck.

It turned out to be a bad weekend to fish... but as they say, a bad day of fishing beats a good day of work :) We knew the fishing would likely be poor tho. It was late March and the burbot had already spawned. Typically the spawn occurs early to mid March and as soon as burbot spawn, they are tight lipped for a while. We just couldn't fish any earlier in March with the new baby and Kevin's work.

As for the fish fry, it was still a huge success. We didn't have much burbot, but luckily my mom was supposed to be here during that time anyway and she flew up with many pounds of walleye and bass to supplement. I doubt fishing could be worse next year... We will likely try a different spot to fish.