Lake of the Woods, 4:30 a.m. and a hook baited with three fat head minnows could only mean one thing – eelpout fishing.
Aaron Guthrie of Bemidji tests his skills against the eelpout whenever the opportunity presents itself and last Friday morning he was in his fish house on Lake of the Woods when his rattle reel sounded.
A few minutes later Guthrie had the fish wriggling on the floor of his fish house. Later he would discover that his catch would weigh 19.54 pounds, setting a new state record.
“The eelpout is a gorgeous fish,” Guthrie said. “The ling cod is one of the ugliest fish in the world but they are so tasty. And the eelpout is a freshwater ling cod. Why wouldn’t you fish for them?”
via Bemidji angler catches state-record eelpout | Park Rapids Enterprise | Park Rapids, Minnesota.
