Cod family
Burbot
Lota lota · also called eelpout
- Spawns
- Midwinter to early spring, under the ice, first of all Minnesota fish
- Needs
- Water below about 70°F in summer
- Eats
- Mostly fish such as small yellow perch and walleye, plus eggs, clams, crayfish and insects
- Lifespan
- Up to about 15 years
- Minnesota record
- 19 lb 10 oz, 33 in — Lake of the Woods; near Baudette, Lake of the Woods County, 2016
Where burbot have been recorded
53 of the 1,788 Minnesota lakes on this site with fish records list burbot, across 11 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.
Recorded here Other lakes with fish records
How we know
- 53lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them
A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.
Inland lakes on this list run from 70 to 128,184 acres (median 1,134) and from 10 to 500 ft deep (median 60 ft).
How many turn up in DNR surveys
Minnesota DNR lake surveys use standard gear: gill nets set offshore for 24 hours (the main gear for walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, cisco, whitefish and trout), trap nets set near shore (the main gear for bluegill, crappie and bullheads), and on some lakes electrofishing, most often for bass. The DNR reports each gear separately, as fish per net set. These rates come from the newest standard survey of each lake on this site, 1959–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.
- Found in
- 39 of 1579 lakes surveyed this way
- Typical rate
- 0.08 per gill net where found
- Highest
- 0.92 per gill net
- Method
- fish per gill net set
“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Each gear catches different fish, so the rates are not added together. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.
Highest survey rates on this site
- Loon Lake, St. Louis 2022 0.92
- Sylvan Lake, Cass 2021 0.58
- Bad Medicine Lake, Becker 2022 0.44
- South Farm Lake, Lake County 2023 0.33
- South Twin Lake, St. Louis 2024 0.33
- Sagamore Mine, Crow Wing 2023 0.29
- Johnson Lake, St. Louis 2022 0.25
- Little Lake, St. Louis 2023 0.25
- Little Vermilion Lake, St. Louis 2021 0.25
- Garden Lake, Lake County 2023 0.22
Fish per gill net set, with survey year. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.
Often found with
Share of these lakes that also list each fish.
How to recognize it
Eel-like, with small scales in slimy skin, a single barbel under the chin and long second dorsal and anal fins that reach almost to the tail. Yellow-brown to dark olive with dark mottling.
Don’t confuse it with
Life in a Minnesota lake
Burbot, the only freshwater member of the cod family, live in most northern Minnesota lakes and rivers, including Lake Superior, with small numbers in the prairie and parts of the lower Mississippi. The DNR calls them good indicators of a healthy watershed. They keep to deep water in summer and are most active in winter.
They spawn in pairs or groups over sand or gravel before ice-out, scattering eggs with no nest and no care; a female can lay as many as a million. Most are caught by accident by anglers fishing for other fish, such as walleye.
Source: the sources below.
Rules and eating
Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Minnesota DNR fishing regulations page is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Minnesota Department of Health’s fish consumption guidance.
All 53 lakes with burbot
Show every lake, by county
Aitkin County 1
Becker County 1
Beltrami County 6
Andrusia Lake, Blackduck Lake, Cass Lake, Long Lake, Movil Lake, Turtle River Lake
Cass County 5
Broadwater Bay, Lake Winnibigoshish, Pike Bay, Sylvan Lake, Thunder Lake
Cook County 5
Gabimichigami Lake, Gaskin Lake, Magnetic Lake, Poplar Lake, Tom Lake
Crow Wing County 5
Lower Whitefish Lake, Mahnomen, Alstead & Arco Lake, Rush Lake, Sagamore Mine, Serpent Lake
Hubbard County 1
Itasca County 6
Cut Foot Sioux Lake (East Bay), Cut Foot Sioux Lake (Main Bay), Jessie Lake, Lower Prairie Lake, Prairie Lake, Round Lake
Lake County 9
August Lake, Fall Lake, Farm Lake, Fraser Lake, Garden Lake, Ottertrack Lake, Sand Lake, Snowbank Lake, South Farm Lake
Mille Lacs County 1
Sources
- Minnesota DNR: Burbot
- Minnesota DNR MinnAqua species profile: Burbot
- Minnesota DNR MinnAqua: Fishes of Minnesota and fish family facts (PDF)
- Minnesota DNR MinnAqua: Minnesota Fish Watch (PDF)
- Minnesota DNR: Fish species classification for the lake index of biological integrity (native and non-native species)
- Minnesota DNR lake surveys (LakeFinder) — lake records, stocking and survey catch rates. Minnesota DNR contributed to this work.
- Minnesota DNR state record fish (certified and non-certified weight lists; angler names are not reproduced here)