Greetings from Torch Lake

[torch lake mm]

Hi all,

My name is Mark I am the sales manager at Dewitt marine on Torch lake, needless to say I spend a lot of time on the water, both fishing and lake testing boats.(heck someone has to do it). I am an avid outdoorsman and love this very cool site. Have been getting lots of info for a while, thought I would join and pitch in. Any questions about my little neck of the woods, I would be glad to through in my two cents. Right or wrong! Ha Ha!

Thanks,

Mark, aka Torch Lake mm

[Highest Bidder]

Welcome, my nieghbors have a place on the north end and are up there right now.(good people). Is this the torch lake that has the "eel fish" or burbot if you will ?

How is the fishing on that lake, anyways. The neighbors have never thrown in a pole for thirty years.:dizzy: I'm like, are you crazy :rolleyes:

My family was invited a few years ago and I paddled out with a paddleboat and three kids fishing. My son caught a white bass in like 3 minutes and dark set in. The neighbors couldn,t believe that he caught a fish period.

Does Dewitt Marine have the used boats for sale in front ?? If so, please reply to me, if you can. Thanks and welcome again.

[torch lake mm]

There is only one Torch lake that i know of in Mi, it does have burbot, also several trout species and atlantic salmon. the white bass you refered to was probly a small mouth or rock bass. It is a good fishing, you will however need downriggers to fish for the trout. We do have usually a good supply of used boats. Call me or come and see me and ill show you what is available.

Thanks,

Mark
1-231-377-6611

[cadillacjethro]

Ahhhhh, Torch..............Oh yea, welcome to the site Mark.

[ckhanna]

Hi there & Welcome to M-S

You have found a plethra of hunting and fishing information, now go and have some fun!!!

[Linda G.]

Up in the Keweenaw, near Houghton. Has saugers in it, and at one time, due to all the effluent from the mines, those fish had a lot of problems. Don't know if they still do or not.

Lots of burbot in Torch Lake, a very underfished resource.

[RoadKillCafe]

For all those who have no idea what a burbot is (like me):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Tr%C3%BCsche_Walchensee.jpg


The burbot (Lota lota), often referred to as a "junkfish", is a freshwater (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_water) fish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish) related to the cods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod). It is also known as the lawyer, and (misleadingly) eelpout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eelpout), and closely related to the common ling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_ling) and the cusk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusk_%28fish%29). It is most common in streams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream) and lakes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake) of North America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America) and Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe) above 40°N latitude (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latitude). They are fairly common in Lake Erie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Erie) but are also found in the other Great Lakes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes)
In Britain, the burbot is possibly an extinct fish as it is believed that there have been no documented catches of the species since the 1970s [1] (http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=246). If the burbot does still survive in the UK, the counties of Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire (particularly the River Derwent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Derwent%2C_Yorkshire) or River Ouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Ouse%2C_Yorkshire)) seem to be the strongest candidates for areas in which the species might yet continue to survive [2] (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/prog_parse.cgi?FILENAME=20050313/20050313_1330_49700_46694_30). There have been plans to re-introduce this freshwater member of the cod family back into British waters but these have yet to come to fruition.
In the 1920s, Minnesota druggist Theodore H. Rowell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_H._Rowell) and his father, Joseph Rowell, a commercial fisherman on Lake of the Woods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Woods), were using the burbot as feed for the foxes on Joe’s blue fox farm. They discovered that the burbot contained something that improved the quality of the fox’s furs; this was confirmed by the fur buyers who commented that these furs were superior to other furs they were seeing. Ted felt it was something in the burbot, so he extracted some oil and sent it away to be assayed. The result of the assay was that the liver of the burbot is 3-4 times more potent in vitamin D, and 4–10 times more potent in vitamin A than “good grades” of cod liver oil. The vitamin content varies in Burbot from lake to lake, where their diet may have some variation. Additionally, the burbot liver makes up approximately 10% of the fish's total body weight, and their liver is six times larger than freshwater fish of comparable size. Ted also found in his research that the oil is lower in viscosity, and more rapidly digested and assimilated than most other fish liver oils. Ted went on to found the Burbot Liver Products Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burbot_Liver_Products_Company&action=edit&redlink=1) which later became Rowell Laboratories, Inc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowell_Laboratories%2C_Inc.), of Baudette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudette), Minnesota, and is today a subsidiary of Solvay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solvay) Pharmaceuticals of Brussels, Belgium.
The town of Walker, Minnesota (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker%2C_Minnesota), holds an International Eelpout Festival (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=International_Eelpout_Festival&action=edit&redlink=1) every winter on Leech Lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech_Lake)[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbot#cite_note-0). In Finland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland), its roe is sold as caviar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caviar). There is an annual spearfishing tournament held near Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. One of the highlights of the tournament is the fish-fry where the day's catch is served up deep-fried. It may be of interest to note that burbot meat when cooked tastes very similar to the American lobster (Homarus americanus). Hence, other times referred to as "poorman's lobster".
The genus and species name "lota" comes from "la lotte," the old French (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_French) word for "codfish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codfish)." The Inuktitut (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut) word for burbot was used to name the extinct species Tiktaalik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik).
In 1994, the World Record burbot was caught on Lake Athapapuskow, Manitoba, during the Flin Flon Fish Enhancement Society's Burbot Derby, by Vaughan Kshywiecki. The fish weighed 22 pounds 8 ounces and measured 42 1/2 inches long[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burbot#cite_note-1).

[Linda G.]

Cause I've never heard, or read, that before about the high vitamin content in burbot, although I wouldn't doubt it. Obviously, no one's ever taken it seriously, there is zero market in burbot.


And I was given a photo of a burbot from Alaska, caught through the ice about 10 years ago, of my buddy's cousin with a burgot that weighed 30 plus pounds...

[Segerski]

Hi, I'm new here.... We have a 'family' house in Alden, on Torch Lake. Oh man, do we love Burbot! But they are stinkers to catch! Deep Deep water and usually at night. If we get 4 or 5 in a season we consider ourselves blessed! You can fry them but if you cut them in chunks and drop in boiling water for 45 seconds, you have "poormans' lobster". Yumm!

[Linda G.]

You must fish for them in open water...if you're fishing deep. I didn't know anybody did. Neat. Most people fish for them through the ice in late February, early March, when they come into shallower waters to spawn. 35-85 feet. Glowsticks, long dead fatheads or shiners, and something like a silver flatfish or jig...and they catch easy if they're there, and if they aren't facing 1000 other glowsticks. It's a small city near the north end of the lake when the ice is good and the burbot are spawning.