Eelpout Alarm

[Steve Wood]

I'll bet that most people reading posts on this "Hard Water" forum have experienced the thrill of sleeping overnight in a fish house and waking up in the morning to find all of the fish lines tangled into one giant mess by an eelpout (or two) that have struck your minnow silently during the night. We'll let me introduce inventor John Kuznia and his invention (patent pending) simply called the "Eelpout Alarm" for preventing such disasters. Meet eelpout slayer John Kuznia (aka "Kuz"):

And now view this man's ingenius invention (2 forms with other variations not too hard to imagine):

John thinks people may scoff at the seemingly simplistic approach to warning weary (or drunk) anglers of an eelpout bite late at night, but he says "Boy does it work; EVERYTIME!" If this design looks slightly Polish to some, this could be as John is (proudly) of Polish descent. The cost is practically nothing to make and there is no need to store and have to remember to bring anything with you on the trip that you wouldn't be taking anyway. The result of this fabulous invention was that the party shown caught 16 slimmy critters in one night before 1:30 AM. At that point they tired of taking them off the hook and pulled up their lines for the night. I didn't hear if they caught anything besides eelpout or not.

[Haywood]

That's innovation at it's best. Not a bad pile of pout either.

[ole1855]

Hey, not only a good idea.....A helluva lot of fun manufacturing the alarms.....

Lots of tasty backstraps in that pile!!

[lund pro-v]

Someone is goin to have some pour man lobster. Last year I was on lake of the wood's and caught a pout with only one eye. And partially deformed fin's.

[John Pearson]

Someone is goin to have some pour man lobster. Last year I was on lake of the wood's and caught a pout with only one eye. And partially deformed fin's.

Thats ok, They all taste the same

[Tubes]

I love the thinking!!

[MikeDebner]

Great post Steve. I think that it would work with rattle reels too. Just stack 3 cans on top of the rattle reel spool and when it turns they will all crash to the floor.

[JohnWayne]

Any design that incorporates the use of empty beer cans gets my vote! Was this the brainchild of someone after a full one was accidentally spilled in the same manner?

This gives me an idea... Pictures to follow once I complete construction...

[MagicStik]

We actually use this same concept for Lake Trout fishing up in Canada. While fishing from an island (bank fishing) we cast the lines out and the bait sits on the bottom. You reel in the slack line and then open the bail. You rap the line around a pop/beer can twice and prop the can up on a rock. When the fish grabs the bait the pop can falls over, the line unwraps, and the fish is able to take line without feeling any resistance. The sound of a pop can hitting the rocks instantly grabs the attention of everyone. It's always a fun joke to finish a beverage and toss the can on a rock....people jump and start looking for "can down".

MagicStik

[TheeBullHead]

I'm impressed with the ingenuity. Until this post, I had no idea an eelpout existed. Those are some ugly fish. If I had caught one of them prior to reading this post, I would have thought I found a new species. Are they really tasty or is it like someone saying "walleye fishing is exciting"...a total exaggeration?!?

[Dan Wood]

I love eelpout, boil with salt and dip in butter... yum..

[Steve Wood]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the post. I was amused at John's photos and thought it would be fun to share them with everyone.

For BullHead, Eelpout is Minnesota slang for an eel-like slimmy fish which is actually a fresh water burbot and a member of the cod family. They are also sometimes called by the name Lawyer (slimmy and no-good?). I've never heard of them being caught during the summer, but they show up during ice fishing, especially at night in deeper cold lakes like Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods (where I beleive these were caught). They're actually supposed to be good to eat, but most fishermen are so turned off by the time they're done unhooking one (they wrap around your arm like a snake does) that they are usually discarded on the ice.

[alagnak]

11 years ago I worked for a lodge in Alaska near Denali National park that was on the shore of a lake that was over 700 feet deep in the foot hills of Mt. McKinley. There were year round rainbows, pike, and burbot (eelpout)- along with the summer salmon that would swim up to the headwater lake. We would put out clorox jug lines with a dozen or so hooks on a jug going down 500-100 feet with chunks of salmon bellies or guts on it prior to flying out to fish or raft for the day. The pout we took off the jug lines when we got home would often go out for snacks prior to the big fancy dinner in the evening (boiled or deep fried) and I remember on nights we had halibut, some of the guests thought the 'snack' fish (pout) we had prior to dinner while having beers were better than the halibut.

[Nova]

The fact that eel pout are delicious has been a well kept secret over the year. Steve is 100% correct, most people can't stomach cleaning them, but there is an easy way. While at ML in the winter when we catch a decent size one we take it outside and attach it to something by the tail to make it hang straight, let it freeze just enough so the slime is stiff, but so the meat isn't solid then fillet them up. works outstanding!

I have caught 2 during the summer, and that's many many hours on ML. One was a 30"er that I caught during a walleye tourney

[Haywood]

Eelpout are toxic and need to be disposed of by someone who is trained. I have taken the training, so if you want to drop them off are my house, I will get rid of them for you, free of charge.

[Steve Wood]

Haywood, there are usually hundreds of these "toxic" creatures littered on the snowbanks up on Mille Lacs this time of year. You won't know how long they've been sitting there of course, but they are all fresh frozen and should be OK. All you have to do is drive around and pick them up.

[thevanrat]

Great topic, gents. A guide on Lake of the Woods came by to check on us some years ago. He saw our pile-O-pouts, and bagged em all up for us. That night at the resort, the cook fried up all of da pouts from the day. They tasted as good or better than anything I have ever eaten.... took some "fillets" of pout home and fried it fer Momma. She agreed they were as good as anything I had dragged home before...

I figure some throw away rubber gloves might make the job easier... like field dressing DEER... maybe somebody could make a YOU TUBE broadcast to show on video how to "field dress" the little bass turds"...

: )

Yum!

[SlipperyBob]

Ah...Now I know what to do with my Arctic Warrior tipdown. LOL's