(Ryan Mosley, UDWR Flaming Gorge Project Leader) So what we are looking for is good rocky habitat because predominantly burbot are eating crayfish.
(ryan Mosley) and what I tell people all the time is just look for smallmouth habitat. If you are a smallmouth fisherman. You would look at this and say oh yeah this is good smallmouth habitat and and that’s probably where burbot are going to be too.
Ryan has been targeting burbot with a net and a rod since burbot were first discovered in the gorge eight years ago. Fishing for burbot is not hard, but does require a few specific techniques.
(Ryan Mosley) On flaming gorge you are allowed to use six poles or tip ups through the ice only. I’m going to be setting out four tip ups tonight and also one dead stick rod and then also jigging a rod. Some nights for whatever reason, the dead stick presentations perform a lot better, so the tips up or the dead stick rod. Other nights I seem to do a lot better moving around from hole to hole jigging with a jigging spoon or a soft body bait like this.
(Ryan Mosley) what I really like is these Gary Yamamoto grubs, the Luminous white, just hit them with a black light. It’s still light out and they still flash a really good glow.
(Ryan) i’ve already chopped up some sucker meat. So i’m going to put a small chunch of sucker meat on here. You can go big on this if you want, but I tend to go a little bit small. The last thing i want to do is fill my hook gap.
(Ryan Mosley) I’ve also done well with Northland Buckshot spoons, I like the 3/8th ounce. Same thing, I’ll tip it with sucker meat and actively jig that. Although I have gotten them on dead stick presentations, but I seem to do better when I’m actively jigging the jigging spoon and just doing the dead stick presentation with the soft bodied bait.
Tip ups can be a great way to catch burbot passively, meaning you don’t need to do anything but set them up. Ryan has customized his tip ups to allow them to fish better.
(Ryan) it’s got reflective tape, a bell so I can hear it, reflective tape so I can shine on it and tell that the flag is up.
The best time to fish for burbot is when the sun is going down and at night. Koby again, is kicking our butts.
(Adam) Man that thing is fighting pretty good isn’t it? (ryan) wow!
(Ryan) you know one thing I would tell anglers the first thing when they come here, especially if they are unfamiliar with the reservoir is buy a map.
(Ryan) Fishing Map company makes a really good Flaming Gorge map, shows a lot of the roads to access the reservoir. There is roads all down the legnth of the reservoir, both sides.
(ryan) The other thing I’d recommend to anglers is try to fish areas that other anglers haven’t already fished or aren’t fishing.
(Ryan) I don’t like to stack up on top of other people. Then when I am working an area like this that is shallower. I try to be quiet.
If you are making a lot of racket, the burbot are probably not going to hit or just move away.
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