By Louie Stout

Anthony Burke with his state record burbot

Lake Michigan was a bit angry when Anthony Burke and his brother Matt launched the boat in pursuit of winter perch last Saturday.

“It was pretty rough out there and I almost turned back,” says the Cedar Lake, Ind. Angler.

Man, is he glad he didn’t. Not only did he and his brother catch a limit of nice perch, but he broke the Indiana record for burbot.

Correction – he shattered the record previously set last year. Burke’s fish weighed 14.3.6 ounces, erasing Phillip Duracz’s previous best of 11.6.4 ounces set last winter.

“I still can’t believe it,” said Burke, a carpenter by trade. “I’m still in shock and it’s hard to think straight while I’m working.”

For those who don’t know, the burbot is a freshwater cod and native to Lake Michigan. They appear as a cross between a catfish and an eel. They move into substrate bottoms to spawn this time of year and intermingle with prespawn perch.

This is the fourth time the record has been broken in two years.

Indiana DNR Lake Michigan biologist Ben Dickinson speculates that unseasonably warm winters the past few years is why so many have been caught.

Those conditions have drawn a lot of anglers to target perch in northwest Indiana where numerous jumbos have been caught this year.

And that’s why Burke and his brother were out there fishing in 60 feet of water northwest of the Port of Indiana.

“I’ve been fishing out there a lot, targeting those 12- to 14-inch perch,” he said. “We were catching quite a few perch, and when this thing hit, I was confused. It didn’t run like a salmon; it rolled more like a catfish. “

But when the 37¼-inch burbot came over the side of his Tracker Targa Deep V fishing boat, he knew he had something.

“I started calling all my buddies, telling them I think I just caught the state record,” he said. “A lot of them have caught burbot, but this was my first.”

Michigan City DNR station confirms record catch

He ran to town, bought a scale, and when it showed more than 14 pounds, he contacted Dickinson. The biologist met him at the Michigan City DNR station and confirmed the official weight.

Burke caught the fish on a homemade, 2-hook perch rig but was using a Cabelas Crappie Slab Magnet, a 2 ½-inch soft plastic tipped with a bemoth larva, as a lure. He fished it on a spinning rod with 10-pound SpiderWire braid and a 3-foot long, 10-pound fluorocarbon leader.

Although considered good eating, the record burbot is headed to a taxidermist. Despite their ugly appearance, burbot’s white meat is considered excellent and often referred to as “poor man’s lobster.”