Eel Pout

[4WheelinMama]

We are making our annual trip to Mille Lacs for a little ice fishing. We have been hearing people talk about cooking eelpout and how great they taste and are wondering if anyone can tell us how to clean and prepare them.

[CatchPhotoFilet]

ive hear of people eating them but something that looks like a snake in the water I think im not going to plan on it anytime soon. My uncle told me you basically just cut out the meat on the tail since that is the only "eatable" part of the creature. You boil it and put some lemon and garlic on it. Poor mans Lobster?

if you cant catch them just walk around other ice houses as im sure there will be plenty to pick up on the ice

Good luck!!

[Wookiee]

Backstraps and tail are edible. It is part of the cod family. Backstraps are the best. Cut them in chunks. Boil 3 minutes and broil three minutes. You can boil in mountain dew, water, sprite, 7-up, or Sierra Mist. I like water. Serve with melted butter definite lobster/crab meat texture. MMMMMM Burbot!

[Craigums]

how do you properly remove the back straps?

[minnesotatuff]

theres the common way of preparing them - versions of above. then theres the experimental way. mine was a long time ago...i just cut out the back straps and put them on the fishouse heater skin side down...ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. it tasted mighty fine, no salt, no pepper, no butter, nothing but fish.

regards,

minnesotatuff

[4WheelinMama]

Thanks for the recipes guys, but my hubby wants to know how to clean them.

[The Grebe]

It's been awhile, but I believe I skun them just like you would a catfish? They have alot of guts, that I can tell you! Then I just cut the meat off like you would fillet anything else. I'm pretty sure thats how I done it?

I cooked them like the poor man lobster recp. they were alright, but I guess I would just as soon eat pollock. I didn't like the color on the skin side of the fillet and I just couldn't get the idea of eelpout out of my head?

Pollock and cod are just as ugly and they are probably related, but I really like those types of fish? Maybe I didn't give the "Mesai" a fair chance?

One other thing...I would be carefull not to get any of that sticky brown stuff they have on their skin onto the meat. I don't know that it would hurt anything, but I sure wouldn't want to accidently eat any of that stuff along with the fillet! It's bad enough to get it on your hands or your fishing line.

[leech~~]

theres the common way of preparing them - versions of above. then theres the experimental way. mine was a long time ago...i just cut out the back straps and put them on the fishouse heater skin side down...ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom. it tasted mighty fine, no salt, no pepper, no butter, nothing but fish.

Minn, I think you forgot to add your main ingredient to preparing and eating experimental pout off a dirty fish house heater! Plenty of beer added to the cook!

[Wookiee]

Cleaning eelpout:

Take your very sharp fillet knife skin is very tough. Run it along the spine on each side. Cut down to the ribs and stop. Run the knife along the spine back to where the tail begins. Then run knife along the ribcage removing the backstrap. Then at the end of the ribcage cut the tail meat off as if doing a regular fillet. When taking the meat off the skin leave a little on the skin. Then chunk it into pieces. DO NOT CUT INTO GUTS=STINKY!

[Harmonica Bear]

I've cooked eelpout a few times serving them like I would would a typical fish, a couple of different ways, too. I was not impressed at all. Then this past winter a friend of mine prepared them doing the Mountain Dew/7-up boil method. Dipped into butter they were fabulous.

[tweedlap]

minnesotastuffing,

How long does that horrible order hang in your clothes after

using your pout cooking method. I nearly gagged when I thought of the smell in the fish house !

That is disgusting !!!!!!!

Guess we will know which house is your's when we pass by it.

Bring a couple of snickers and spare the pout pollution.

tweed

[minnesotatuff]

no worries, the cigar smoke kills everything...

regards,

minnesotatuff

[chrismackmn]

yuck....why would you do this?

[minnesotatuff]

just so you know before this gets carried away, all teasing aside. i said my experimental time was a long time ago. there is big emphasis on "long time ago"...maybe 20 years ago? it wasnt a dare and i wasnt drinking. i just wanted to know what they tasted like and you cant argue with the freshness. i scraped the heater clean when i was thru. truthfully, i cant remember what the smell was like...i was a pipe smoker then.

now i smoke cigars fishing by myself usually in a two man portable...lots of room and no complaints.

with this cold spell we might see some walkable ice in a week. im hoping for no wind, cold temps and no snow...nice clear, strong ice.

good luck to everyone this season and keep those eel pout for good food and garden furtilizer.

regards,

minnesotatuff

[mtreno]

something i have noticed and a bit off subject is the numbers of pout in the lake. we used to get a few every night it seemed like back in the day. the last few seasons its maybe a few a season - and they are just little dinks.... maybe with the last few cooler summers the pout will once again be on the return. any thoughts?

back on subject - have eaten them a few times. always boiled then with butter. very good everytime. but i have more fun fighting them then i do cleaning them. back down the hole is usually where they go in my shack.

[gregg52]

I BELIEVE they might run in cycles

I had my house on gull this a few yrs back but after dark we would catch lots and big ones in that 4-7lb range then they slowly disappeared

you can even see it in the jaycees contest if you look back at the winners for a couple yrs it was big pout then that away to

so i think its one of mothers natures wonders

that my take on it anyway

[The Grebe]

Back years ago, I used to see pout all over Mille Lacs in the winter, I mean, there seemed to be a pile outside just about every fish house and some big ones to....I wondered what the waste would do to the population. I didn't eat em so I would let em go. For alot of years now, mostly all I see are little ones and I haven't caught near as many, nowhere near. We used to get alot of walleyes back then to and it seemed there was more tullibee? The lakes dynamics sure have changed, or so it seems to me?

[leech~~]

A few years back I was talking to one of the Resorters on Milacs and he said if you don't want to eat the Pout, throw the %$@ things back. Or don't complain if you aren't getting any Walleye's! The pout help eat up all the little dink perch in the lake that the Walleye's are full of! Huum?

[JBone]

I can't wait to get into some pout! I have never fished Mille Lacs and in a month i will

[Ryan_V]

I can't wait for some good old boiled pout either!! after hearing how good they are, I had to try it myself. I'll never throw another back down the hole again!!

[Rippinlip]

Exactly 4 weeks from right now we will be in a sleeper house on the pond! Here EP, here EP.

[JBone]

6 weeks for me!

[CrowRiverRat83]

I agree with Grebe. I think years and years of wasting every pout caught has helped to reduce their numbers. Just 10 years ago I would fish out of my uncles sleeper and we would always catch some pout. Now the last 4 years I've had my own sleeper out there and haven't caught ONE.

[The Grebe]

I fish Mille Lacs as often as I can in the winter. I suppose that last year I hit it maybe 15 times? I fish the east side and the west side and I think that in the last 3-4 years I have gotten one eel? A little one at that. I have got some mongo tullibees, much bigger then anything I used to get out of there. Not many, but about twice the size.

[wolfman-k]

I remember about thirty years ago, I stepped outside of the rental I shared with a friend, and I saw someone's dog running up to several fish houses, then running over to a pick-up. After watching closer, I relized that this old man had taught his dog to 'fetch' any fish tossed out of the sleeper doors! That hound really cleaned up all the pout, and I reckon he found quite a few walleyes, too.

[Draven422]

Thanks for the recipes. I was always curious on what they tasted like. Heading to LOW next week, so I might have to experiment. Either I'll be kicked out of the cabin for dishing it out, or I'll get the praise for a new treat.