Northwest Fishing Reports

Good day all!
I am pondering heading to Lake Roosevelt to do some trout and burbot fishing. One problem though, the only burbot I have caught were an accident. Looking for any and all advice on the how-what-where to catch some of these goofy looking fish. I hear rumor they make excellent table fare and can be sizeable. We will probably be in the Hawk Creek area of the lake if that makes assistance easier. Any help would be greatly appreciated due to the fact I have a nasty case of the fishing-pox and must find a cure!

I do believe that there were some informative posts on burbot from Roosevelt posted last year, have a looksee.

They do make for great eating. With the slime and all their funny noises they make I would not have believed it. Pretty easy to clean also. I do not know what their migration patterns are but in June we were catching them across from Blue Creek on the point where the Narrows start (east of the launch) in the big bay (actually Porcupine Bay).

Burbot are one of the fish that may not be safe to eat from Lake Roosevelt, there are recommended restrictions on how of the bottom fish should be eaten from Lake Roosevelt and when I was there last the fish inspector said the Burbot is the species most affected by the pollution in the lake.

I remember reading once where lake Kachees has Burbot in it. Maybe Stacie can tell you what lakes have Burbot. I believe Banks Lake has some also.

Sullivan Lake has a lot of Burbot and they are pretty good sized. It is a fair ways to go from Spokane but it does have a nice campground. Best fishing is November/December for the Burbot. The fish inspectors also say eating a lot of Walleye is not good for you either. I will probably die smiling with fish stuck in my teeth

When I helped with a WDFW fish survey on Billy Clapp this year we had a few burbot in the nets.

I think Bead Lake has a good population of burbot, but I`ve never been there.

Just my .02...I somewhat discount the advisories against eating 'contaminated fish'. I grew up in eastern Washington and have had probably 500 or more days fishing the Columbia/Snake/Yakima and the ponds and lakes on the eastside for pretty much everything that swims and have eaten 1000's of pounds of fish I have caught from cutthroats in pristine highland lakes and streams to catfish in mudhole ponds.

For many years they warned that salmon and other species taken from Vernita to Richland were contaminated from various chemicals and radiation from the nuclear reactors @ Hanford using and discharging Columbia river water for their cooling systems. You heard it on the news every year, it was a prime meme of the Downwinders and other environmental groups. Same goes for DDT/fertilzer/pesticide and other agricultural runoff in the smaller rivers, lakes, and ponds.

Now to be clear I am from a nuclear family. My grandfather worked at Hanford from the top secret days in the 40's until the late 80's and died in his late 70's of diabetes. My mother worked at Hanford in the 'hot' (ie radioactive) laboratories from the early 70's until she retired as a nuclear engineer in the late '90's. She is now in her mid 60's. None of us glow in the dark, had our hair fallout, or had/have cancer.

I remember when they finally started doing studies about how much fish you would have to eat to actually get sick and it was something like 1000+ lbs to get the same amount of radiation as a cross country airline flight or a chest x-ray. Maybe we are just lucky ones, maybe the interested parties are just trying to exaggerate the results to make people aware or stop/decrease the amount of pollution before it gets to harmful levels. Truthfully I'm far more scared of bacterially contaminated shellfish, or purposefully mislabeled seafood imported from third world countries or China then I am about eating the fish I catch in Washington.
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Wow....that link is amazing reading Trout Snipr. Now I understand why Tilapia never tastes the same!!!

strider43 wrote:Burbot are one of the fish that may not be safe to eat from Lake Roosevelt, there are recommended restrictions on how of the bottom fish should be eaten from Lake Roosevelt and when I was there last the fish inspector said the Burbot is the species most affected by the pollution in the lake.

You know, it pays to read the advisories, that's what they're there for. Quoted from WDFW website as of this morning...

Upper Columbia River / Lake Roosevelt

Contaminant - Mercury and PCBs

Advice:

Women who are or might become pregnant, nursing mother, and young children:

Don't eat Northern Pikeminnow.
Limit Largemouth Bass and Largescale Sucker to 2 meals per month.
Limit Burbot, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Smallmouth Bass, and Walleye to 1 meal per week (or 4 meals per month of any combination of these fish).
Kokanee is okay to eat 3 meals per week. Lake Whitefish or Rainbow Trout is okay to eat 2 meals per week.

Men, and women beyond childbearing age:

Limit Largescale Sucker to 1 meal per week.

Unless you fall into the red highlighted category, the only advisory for the Upper Columbia River/Lake Roosevelt is for eating largescale sucker.

hewesfisher wrote:

strider43 wrote:Burbot are one of the fish that may not be safe to eat from Lake Roosevelt, there are recommended restrictions on how of the bottom fish should be eaten from Lake Roosevelt and when I was there last the fish inspector said the Burbot is the species most affected by the pollution in the lake.

You know, it pays to read the advisories, that's what they're there for. Quoted from WDFW website as of this morning...

Upper Columbia River / Lake Roosevelt

Contaminant - Mercury and PCBs

Advice:

Women who are or might become pregnant, nursing mother, and young children:

Don't eat Northern Pikeminnow.
Limit Largemouth Bass and Largescale Sucker to 2 meals per month.
Limit Burbot, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Smallmouth Bass, and Walleye to 1 meal per week (or 4 meals per month of any combination of these fish).
Kokanee is okay to eat 3 meals per week. Lake Whitefish or Rainbow Trout is okay to eat 2 meals per week.

Men, and women beyond childbearing age:

Limit Largescale Sucker to 1 meal per week.

Unless you fall into the red highlighted category, the only advisory for the Upper Columbia River/Lake Roosevelt is for eating largescale sucker.

I wasn't really speaking about burbot particularly, but more along the general warnings you hear about on the news. Many are not at the request of the WDFW but other groups with an axe to grind attempting to get publicity. About being a pregnant mother is a totally different issue as well, depending on what doctor you go to and what your political leanings are, but that is a discussion for off-topic.

I even take the States warnings with a grain of salt. I'm darn certain everything they have to say is true. It's just they're going to be as conservative as is possible when it comes to health warnings. I can just see someone eating a bunch of fish and coming up with heavy metal poisoning and sueing the State because they failed to warn them.

It is important to note that when fish are tested for contamination, the entire fish goes into a blender, not just the fillets. If you fillet the fish or remove the head and entrails before cooking, a good portion of said contaminants will never make it to your plate.

I have to agree with the G man. I went to some classes at the U of W Fisheries back in the 70's . They also said the ammount of contamination is very slight and you would need to eat hundred of pounds a month to show any (harmful) traces at all.The state or counties say this for their own liabilities.This weekend I went to a fine restaurant that had a King County warning on the hazards of "Beef Tartare". I bought it and ate it all with no problems what soever. Its just so people wont get sued by sue happy people.I think its the same with the signs I see along Lk Wa.As a side note when cleaning fish I do check the liver and heart for any major spotting and check the meat for flukes and or tapeworms.Even salmon and Steel.

racfish wrote:<Snip>
I think its the same with the signs I see along Lk Wa.As a side note when cleaning fish I do check the liver and heart for any major spotting and check the meat for flukes and or tapeworms.Even salmon and Steel.

That's why it's a good idea to freeze all your fish to below zero, -20 is better before eating.

TroutSnipr wrote:

hewesfisher wrote:

strider43 wrote:Burbot are one of the fish that may not be safe to eat from Lake Roosevelt, there are recommended restrictions on how of the bottom fish should be eaten from Lake Roosevelt and when I was there last the fish inspector said the Burbot is the species most affected by the pollution in the lake.

You know, it pays to read the advisories, that's what they're there for. Quoted from WDFW website as of this morning...

Upper Columbia River / Lake Roosevelt

Contaminant - Mercury and PCBs

Advice:

Women who are or might become pregnant, nursing mother, and young children:

Don't eat Northern Pikeminnow.
Limit Largemouth Bass and Largescale Sucker to 2 meals per month.
Limit Burbot, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Smallmouth Bass, and Walleye to 1 meal per week (or 4 meals per month of any combination of these fish).
Kokanee is okay to eat 3 meals per week. Lake Whitefish or Rainbow Trout is okay to eat 2 meals per week.

Men, and women beyond childbearing age:

Limit Largescale Sucker to 1 meal per week.

Unless you fall into the red highlighted category, the only advisory for the Upper Columbia River/Lake Roosevelt is for eating largescale sucker.

I wasn't really speaking about burbot particularly, but more along the general warnings you hear about on the news. Many are not at the request of the WDFW but other groups with an axe to grind attempting to get publicity. About being a pregnant mother is a totally different issue as well, depending on what doctor you go to and what your political leanings are, but that is a discussion for off-topic.

My reply was to strider43's comments... Anyone who is concerned about their health should follow the advice of their physician not a "fish inspector" which I suspect was a tribal creel checker not a marine biologist. But I digress...

I know you quoted Strider but I inferred that you were making your reply because none us us are a pregnant female. Just one of the hazards of forums...the mis-inferred post...not the pregnant female ;)

I look a lil pregnant but its from eating rich high calorie foods

Now that's funny Racfish!!!!