poor man's lobster

tubber

Well-Known Member
I went to Ukee 6 times this year. It was worth every penny but not cheap, so the name of this recipe no longer is applicable. Over the summer I managed to troll up 3 small halibut and drifted for 4-5 hours for zero more. I trolled the bottom for hours with huge baited turds and caught more and more Chinooks, sole, baby lings, and a few small rockfish. On the last day of my last solo trip, I went to get a couple lings before pulling the boat for the trip home. I got a cabezon, then a big ling on a jig, so I thought I would throw some bait down on a second rod for the next drift over a bump. The tide was moving fairly fast so I ran upstream a ways. The reef was about 65'. In about 120' of water I hung a small piece of 3 day old salted salmon belly on a 3 foot leader with a glow hootchie and two 9/0 octopus hooks below a sliding weight holder with a homemade 10oz dink weight.
My intent was to put the rod in a holder and wind the reel a bit as the bottom came up on the drift while I jigged the other rod.
I must have dropped the bait on her head because I hooked up immediately. There were three characteristic runs back to bottom, while I dug around in a storage tote for a shark hook that I knew was on the boat somewhere. I managed to find it, untangle it from all the other crap I can never find, undo the coils of line, tie the end to the rail (no cleats on my boat), and get the fish near the surface. I got the big hook in the mouth and back through the jaw. The fish didn't enjoy that, soaking me and the boat as we wrestled. I didn't want to tempt fate and let go of the line to see what would happen when it came to the end of the tether, nor did I want to see if I could hog tie it and mess with it solo, so into the boat it came. A couple whacks with a retired kid-size Louisville slugger seemed to calm it down. I felt the need to bleed the fish right away so I cut the tail and a gill. Mistake. A shower of slime and blood splattered my sunglasses, seats, tackle bags, downriggers, sounder, vhf, etc...
I was back at the dock by 8:00am with a cabezon, a ling and a 125cm halibut.

Recipe for thick, coarse grained halibut.

cooking liquid
1 gallon of water
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup rock salt
2 tablespoons old bay
2 bay leaves
bring to a boil

dipping options:
we used 4 small oriental dishes
butter
lemon butter
mayo with chipotle powder stirred in
seafood/cocktail sauce

cut the hali into 1-1.5 inch cubes
drop them in the boiling water and put the lid back on.
Some recipes say pull the chunks when they float, but that is too long.
3-4 minutes was good
Fish them out with a Chinese fishing net
Eat with the dips.
Straight butter was my preference.
Easy and very good, and very mildly lobstery
 
Good story! By the end of it I had forgotten which subforum we were in and was mildly surprised to see a recipe!
 
thxs for the recipe. I've heard of it before but I don't think I've ever tried it. the person who showed it to me a few years ago swears by it. it's fantastic according to him! Hopefully I can get a hali or 2 on my next trip to try it out. would be nice to try out a fresh piece of cubed up fillet on the boat. (is that legal? hopefully) will be targeting them if the salmon fishing seems slow in less than a week from now. countdowns on....
 
Just had this for dinner tonight with mashed potatoes and asparagus.

My wife and I thank you!

Think I'll use this cooking liquid for the next dungys I catch as well...
 
Great story and recipe.

I've done bottom fish boiled in 7 up before (for shites and giggles) and it does taste like poor man's lobster.

Thanks for posting tubber. I will give this a whirl with halibut. I like the basics.

Cheers,
John
 
In Alberta we used to call it Loon Lake Lobster.......where we used one inch square cubes of boneless pike but it works with most white meat fish....the key is not to over cook it as the "texture" is also important. What doesn't go well with garlic butter?
 
Tried this out few years back came out pretty close to tasting like crab/lobster was pretty funny ... i took it out just before they surfaced i knew it would still
be hot and cooking while out , came out really tender sorta wanted the crab like wet texture , was different .. the extra sea salt helped tasted like the ocean water .

Found it here
 
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