Jim Shell had a brainstorm on burbot, one of Illinois\u2019 oddest fish. \u201cAlthough a straggler can be caught accidentally during the day, they are strictly nocturnal predators,\u201d Shell emailed after his first attempt in early June to night fish for burbot by jigging reefs in Illinois waters of Lake Michigan.
\n\u201cWe target them every year at our annual trip to Red Lake, Ontario. In Red Lake we fish the same structures we catch lake trout during the day and fish those spots at night for burbot. . . . It was my goal to catch burbot in our part of lake Michigan this summer.\u201d
\nI\u2019m all for quixotic quests. His proved successful.<\/p>\n
Jim Shell holds a trio of big burbot caught on one of the nights he experimented with night fishing reefs in Illinois waters of Lake Michigan for burbot.<\/p>\n
I had written about the Illinois Natural History Survey mapping the reefs. Shell found the list of reefs mapped so far at ifishillinois.org\/lmich\/index.php.(click on Fish Habitat and scroll down). He studied them, then picked reefs (Julian\u2019s, Gumby, Waukegan) he thought had the best chance of burbot.
\nAfter a long boat ride (he times his trips for light wind nights) the first night, he arrived early to map the structure by trolling a couple hours in daylight, catching five lake trout and a coho.
\n\u201cI was pleased to see lakers were present as it further boosted my confidence that burbot would show up after dark,\u201d Shell emailed. \u201cBurbot are known to be bottom feeders and hold tight to the bottom.\u201d
\nThe first burbot bite came an hour after dark. In the next four hours, he boated four burbot and two lakers, and missed at least another four burbot.<\/p>\n