Eelpout to eclipse walleye as state fish!

[Fish On!]

The MN budget crisis will take care of itself. Friends, I implore you to contact your state elected officials and let them know the most pressing political problem facing this state. Let them know you want to make Burbot the official state fish of Minnesota!

Eelpout the state fish? That's right. I believe Eelpout are more representative of Minnesotans than the somewhat pedestrian and easy to catch walleye. Just as Minnesotans, particularly ice fishermen (sorry "fisherpeople"), have found a way to thrive in the sub-arctic winter months, the Eelpout also thrives in the bitter cold and extreme darkness. We share a similar character with this denizen of the deep. Industrious Minnesotans have invented a plethora of useful products such as post it notes, waterskis, snowmobiles and spam. Likewise, the Eelpout's shows similar industry and creativity in its ability to survive at extreme depths and to find a mate despite it being the slimiest and ugliest thing in the lake. (Not to imply the people of this great state are ugly and slimy.) What has the walleye done but create a complex system of government regulation and foster elitism among the brotherhood of fisherpeople? Big government and class warfare are the hallmarks of the Walleye regime. Furthermore, Walleye are a dime a dozen and bite on anything. I ask you are we so simple minded and easy to fool as the common walleye? No, we are cunning, brave and strong like the Eelpout! And yet the Eelpout is compasionate too. Last year at the eelpout festival in Walker, for instance, an obscenely huge burbot took my line and could easily have ripped my arms right out of their sockets. But it didn't. It merely broke the handle on my fishing rod instead, thus saving my arms. Friends, I could have been a double amputee. It amazes me to this day that such a powerful creature could show such discretion and kindness. Yes, the Eelpout is everything we must strive to be like as people, as a state, as a nation.

So join me friends, write your congressmen, write letters to the editor, post messeges on this forum professing the support that this hardy gamefish deserves. Make the Eelpout your official state fish!

Fish On!

[Pig_sticka]

thank you governor fish on!
would we then have eelpout fisheries? stock every lake in minnesota with this beuatiful fish. eelpout bite all day too, which is great. if you go for walleyes they only bite at night, unless your on low or something. lots of ugly people in mn, why not have a fish that represents us more

[LundExplorer]

Why stop at the state fish?

The Vikes should change names to the 'Pouts (would go right along with a few players' attitudes...) change logos, put a 'pout image on the side of the helmets too.

I just might even become a fan again.

For now GO PACK!!! Thanks Favre for staying on, maybe next season!!!

TL

[cvikes80]

thats pretty **** funny

[cvikes80]

LundExplorer
get your cheese head butt outa here. this is a sota board lol. i too am glad farve will be around so that Hovan can ripem up next year. you guys were playing like dump ever since week 9 and got out of a season sweep from the vikes by a ton of blown calls in the 4th. its all good cause in effect we won the game and get a better draft pick. 1 and done at home? ouch! is that whats in store for next year? we'll see i guess but they really looked flat ending the season.

[Fish On!]

Stocking eelpout. What a great idea! And so easy too; I don't think we'd need the help of any DNR fish scientist. Here's what we do.

That barber shop squad that wins the Eelpout festival every year could help. This time of year, they must have about five hundred live 'pout on hand. This would make a good breeding stock. Remember that eelpout are alien creatures that hitchhiked on a comet that collided with the earth 14 million years ago. Anyone who's seen a sci-fi movie (i.e. "The Thing") knows that aliens procreate asexually by dividing, similar to sponges and amoebas. Simply cut up these 500 fish and grow them in your bath tub at home. Eelpout eat car batteries and old refriderator gaskets, and propane tanks which can be harvested from our National and State forest land. We can grow big eelpout while cleaning the environment. It's a win win. Then, when the bathtub is full of huge 'pout, throw 'em in your trunk and drive them to the lake and dump them in your favorite fishing hole!

Fish On!

[Perch Jerker]

Preach it brother!
It is about time that the eelpout get the recognition they deserve. Fellow Minnesotans, I implore you to show your support for this forward thinking moving mindset by the creation of trash fish (walleye) picket fences outside of your overtaxed ice shanties. For years the loveable pout' lined the perimeters of heartless fishermens warm retreats. So much pain and sorrow in their frozen eyes while their open mouths screamed in silence for the years of otrition. Is this the kind of hatred and class warfare that we wish to hand down to our children? NO I SAY! Stand up and be counted, POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Fish On!, I stand behind you in this fight (but not too closely, I'm not THAT kind of guy) to change the state fish to the loveable and cuddly EELPOUT!

(actually just eat the walleye and release the pout', more for me that way)

[Lip RIPPER!]

You should have seen the tub full of pouts that they netted up by Springsteel on LOW last weekend. Looked like something on the tv show Fear Factor.

[Fish Toys]

Pout headed for Red Lobster as fish patties!
"FISH"

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http://www.icesaws.com/

[Fish On!]

Amen Perch Jerker.

The Eelpout is a symbol of our oppression. As perch jerker pointed out, our ice shanties are over taxed. As a whole, fishermen are taking in the you know what. I still can't believe I had to buy a spearing license in addition to my regular fishing license. I'm sure a walleye stamp, crappie stamp, and sunfish stamp, and rod and reel stamps are looming on the horizon too. And what do we get in return for our hard earn dollars? A completely mismanaged Eelpout fishery that's what.

For every walleye finger planted in Leech Lake, a thousand eelpout fry die. That's right, the government is killing baby eelpout with our money!

The slaughter must stop. At the present rate of walleye stocking, EELPOUT WILL BECOME EXTINCT IN MINNESOTA WATERS BY THE YEAR 2006!

We already lost the passenger pigeon, keeper-sized northern, and the wooly mammoth. We can't let this happen to another one of the earth's great species. And we won't!

Contact your local Eelpout Forever or Eelpout Unlimited chapter to learn more about making Eelpout the official state fish!

Fish On!

[Guest]

Fish on......you must be a lawyer! Great posts. Very funny.....Lets all jump on the bandwagon....however I still would need someone to take those slimy things off my line for me! (YUK!)

[ChapstickCharlie]

By the time I got done reading this I was standing with my hand over my heart! So it has come down to the Pout. Lead on.

[Poutmaster]

It's nice to see so many people love and care deeply about my namesake, the POUT. It is the only fish around that tries to give your arm a hug when it comes through the hole. A fish that is MN nice. A state fish indeed!

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Love them 'Pout!

[Crawlerman]

Eelpout forever... heh

Seriously though... it wasn't that long ago when people thought the same way about Catfish..... and now, according to In Fisherman, it is second ONLY to Black Bass for the most popluar freshwater sport fish in the United States (yes.. it beats the Walleye )

Same goes with carp. There are still a number of people who view them as "trash fish", but the articles supporting them as a sportfish in the In-fisherman are making many anglers curious... the same way views were changed on Catfish and Bullheads.

As I said before-- Eelpout ARE a freshwater cod; their saltwater cousins looking almost identical; and being renowned as both a great sport and commercial food fish. I bet if you brought a fisherman from Maine to MN and fished for pout I bet they would love it! I just think it's odd...

I think both Eelpout and dogfish would also be considered less of a "trash" fish if perodicals did more coverage on it; and more places actually made books and gear for them; as what is starting to be done with carp. It would also help if they were more common in more lakes across the state/nation. As I said-- I'd galdy spend a day fishing for pout; but I'd rather not have to drive to Mille Lacs or farther to catch them. Dogfish are another "ugly oddity" that exsist in some lakes around the metro and southern minnesota, but are a minor preadtor with far less significant numbers or range of lakes containing them.

[Steve Foss]

There are dogfish up north too, at least as far as the Bemidji area. I oughta know, cause I catch them, and take endless dump from Catfish Sr., who thinks walleyes are God and can't understand why they're 194th on my list.

But catfish still kick butt on dogfish!

As for pout, that's like making the national symbol the turkey instead of the eagle. If Benjamin Franklin couldn't swing it (he wanted the wild turkey as our national symbol), no way will fish on do it.

Although, I gotta admit, fish on is a heckuva poet who maybe doesn't knoet.

[Cyberfish]

Yes, Burbot are beautiful! I vote them as state fish!

What fish bites best when its cold?

Burrrrrrrrrrbot

[Guest]

I constantly sing
Praises to God
For the fish I call Ling
(it's a freshwater cod)

It's taste is famed
From 'Frisco to Gloster
That's why it's named
The Poor Man's Lobster

[Nicholas_23]

When a friend and I were in boundary waters a few years we caught a fish (8") and didn’t know what we caught. There were some guys from Duluth paddling by the next morning asking if we caught anything. We told them about this goofy lookin fish we caught the night before with a single whisker on its chin. They told us what it was and said they they cut the line with their cigars and let them swim off. When we got back we checked them out and found out they were part of the cod family and were actually good eatin. Oh well live and learn I guess.

[Matt D]

Ah, the mighty 'pout. How many of ye anglers have made the treck to such northern jewels as Lake of the Woods in search of the elusive, and ever-so-deified walleye? Yet in your endeavors to hook the famed fish held in such high esteem amongst so many novice anglers of this land of 10,000 lakes, did you per chance attain such fortune as to procure the mighty burbot? Lota lota, his properly admonished title, is a guardian of the deep. Known to few and scoffed by many. Rare is the angler who admires his savvy, revels in his struggle at the end of a whispy tether, and relishes in the delictable taste of his firm white flesh. Long may his progeny swim the haunted depths of the great waters of this wonderful land. Viva Eelpout!

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Best FISHES,
Matt

[Matt D]

P.S. I am sickened every time I come across a burbot left frozen to the ice -- a particularly common occurrence on LOW. If you aren't going to eat it, put it back down the hole. Wanton waste does not just apply to fish you'd "prefer to catch". Just my humble, honest, and at times somewhat frustrated opinion.

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Best FISHES,
Matt

[cluelessfisherman]

I caught my first 2 eelpout on Winnie the last few days. I cleaned one only because you folks said they were decent tasting fish. I admit, I was turned off by the slime, but once I saw that white meat come out of the boiling water, I knew I was in for a treat. I had to force my dad to taste it and from now on, every eelpout will be coming home for the table! I almost have to say throw the eyes back, and keep the eelpout because they are a much better tasting fish!!

Poor College Student Lobster!!!!

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Clueless - -

[Fish On]

you guys are probaly the same turkeys that ask.... how do you cook mud puppies

[Guest]

The finest moment of excitement thus far for me this winter was up on LOW in the Angle area. With a pot of venison brats boiling on a camp stove between my holes, I had an eelpout on both lines at the same time. Imagine my predicament as I fought one fish with my boot holding the other rod to the ice. Each magnificent 'pout was good sized and as they emerged from the icy depths to greet me, they each wrapped their tail around my forearm as if to say, "Unhook me gently please!." I dwelled a moment with each one admiring their beautiful "Desert Storm" markings and them slipped them back down the hole, watching that big tail wave bye bye as it propelled them back to their home. If all "lawyers" were as these, the world would be a much better place. Count me amongst the eelpout faithful......T

[Fish On!]

I fear there may be a likelihood of confusion between my user name "Fish On!" and the user "Fish On" who posted the somewhat anti-burbot message above. Friends, I assure you there is no affiliation; I pray this similarity is mere coincidence and not some fraudulent means to undermine the blossoming support for the recognition of Eelpout as a Minnesota mascot. (It wouldn't be the first time the Eelpout movement has collided with such unethical resistance, i.e. the underground militant walleye supporters of the early-mid seventies).

I have to say I almost selected the username "Fish On" without an exclaimation point. But, after discussing the matter with family and friends (not to mention hours of soul searching), I decided to add an exclaimation point. I did this because I believe the exclaimation mark embodies the character of the Eelpout. Sure, I could have chosen the name "Eelpout On" or "Burbot On" or "Lota Lota Lawyer On," but that kind of "in your face" self-promotion is not what the Eelpout is about. The Eelpout, a fish that patrols the shadowy depths of Walker Bay, is more subtle than that. Still, the Eelpout is a forceful animal- an exclamatory beast- for it will strike in the blink of an eye and drag a weaker fisherman to his knees (or at least make him drop his beer and dive for his rod and reel before they go flying down the ice hole). In sum, "Fish On!," with an exclaimation, stands for Eelpout.

I am pleased, but shouldn't be surprised I guess, by your pro-burbot support. This grass roots movement to name Eelpout Minnesota's new state fish is taking off! Can you feel it!

Also, I got a new food processor for x-mas. Think bas-o-matic. I've been experimenting with making northern patties/burgers. Soon to devise a new Lota Lota "lobster" cakes recipe. We'll see how it turns out.

Fish On!

[Gonzo]

!
ROFLMAO!
You've convinced me! I'm even more impressed with your stance than Mr. Pinks stance on tipping in "Resevoir Dogs".